"? 


THRIFT 
IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 


THRIFT 
IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 


BY 


DORA  MORRELL  HUGHES 


BOSTON 
LOTHROP,  LEE  &  SHEPARD  CO. 


Published,  March,  1918 


COPYRIGHT,  1918, 
BY  LOTHROP,  LEE  &  SHEPARD  Co. 


All  Rights  Reserved 
THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 


press 
co. 


U.S.  A. 


"Annual  income  twenty  pounds,  an- 
nual expenditure  nineteen  nineteen  six, 
result  happiness.  Annual  income  twenty 
pounds,  annual  expenditure  twenty 
pounds  ought  and  six,  result  misery" 

—Mr.  Uicawber  in  "David  Copperfeld." 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  WHAT  THRIFT  Is  AND  Is  NOT      .       9 

II.  BUYING.        .        .'       .        .     '  .      19 

III.  MANAGING,  AND  LITTLE  LEAKS    .      37 

IV.  LITTLE  ECONOMIES        .        .        .      49 
V.  VINEGARS.     EGGS         .        •        •      75 

VI.  THE  GREATEST  ECONOMY  :  YOUR- 
SELF   89 

VII.  LABOR-SAVING      .        .        .        .107 

VIII.  BREAD  AND  CAKE         .        .        .115 

IX.  SOUPS     .        .        .        .        .        .133 

X.  OILS  AND  FATS      ....    149 

XI.  COAL  AND  ICE       ....    167 

XII.  POSSIBILITIES  OF  CORN  MEAL      .    185 

XIII.  MEAT  AND  MEAT  SUBSTITUTES     .    195 

XIV.  DESSERTS       .        .        .        .        .225 
XV.  THRIFT  AND  TEXTILES  .        .        .    243 

XVI.  CARE  OF  CLOTHING       .        .        .    257 

XVII.  THE  FAMILY  GARDEN  .                    277 


CHAPTER  I 
WHAT  THRIFT  IS  AND  IS  NOT 


THRIFT 
IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 


CHAPTER  I 
WHAT  THRIFT  IS  AND  IS  NOT 

THRIFT  is  the  making  the  best  of  what 
one  has  in  strength,  time,  or  money  ;  get- 
ting one  hundred  per  cent,  in  one's  re- 
lations with  life.  Thrift  is  an  apprecia- 
tion and  application  of  the  accumulative 
force  of  little  things.  Thrift  is  a  con- 
structive force ;  waste  is  its  destructive 
opposite.  Sometimes  thrift  is  saving, 
going  without ;  sometimes  thrift  is  spend- 
ing— "  there  is  a  scattering  that  increas- 
eth  " — but  always  it  is  something  for 

something.     Thrift  is  the  base  on  which 
11 


12      THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

success  of  every  kind  is  built,  for  either 
thrift  or  waste  is  used  in  everything. 
The  business  man  applies  thrift  when  he 
finds  the  measure  by  which  he  can  re- 
duce his  "  overhead  "  by  the  fraction  of 
a  cent,  for  he  realizes  that  these  fractions 
soon  grow  into  dollars. 

Philosophers,  since  first  there  were 
philosophers,  have  been  telling  their 
hearers  that  there  were  no  trifles,  but 
the  American  households  as  a  whole 
have  been  managed  as  if  to  use  no  more 
than  was  needed,  to  save  the  bit  here 
and  there,  were  beneath  their  dignity. 
Women  know  less  of  thrift  and  more  of 
an  uneven,  haphazard  effort  at  saving 
than  is  consistent  with  their  duty  as 
partners  in  home-making ;  unfortunately, 
too  often  they  have  no  respect  for  nor 
appreciation  of  the  power  that  lies  in 
their  hands,  and  therefore  fail  to  realize 
the  possibilities  of  the  material  with 
which  they  work,  and  their  servants 


WHAT  THRIFT  IS  AND  IS  NOT     13 

have  imitated  them,  and  have  despised 
economy  as  stinginess,  which  is  quite 
another  matter.  Stinginess  is  selfish- 
ness. If  you  notice,  you  will  find  the 
givers  among  the  thrifty.  What  they 
have  not  wasted  they  share  with  others. 
Every  article,  however  small  it  may  be, 
that  is  wasted  must  be  replaced  and  it  is 
11  the  little  foxes  that  spoil  the  vines." 
Few  persons  waste  dollars  at  a  time,  but 
they  waste  many  in  cents.  The  Wool- 
worth  Building,  and  the  Fifth  Avenue 
house,  built,  as  the  megaphone  man  tells 
his  hearers,  from  five-cent  and  ten-cent 
pieces,  are  object  lessons  in  the  financial 
advantage  of  saving  trifles. 

There  is  no  thrift  in  saving  when  the 
value  of  the  article  saved  is  less  than  the 
expense  of  saving  it.  Sometimes  there  is 
more  thrift  in  throwing  away  than  in 
saving.  Does  that  seem  a  paradox? 
Not  long  since,  when  eggs  were  sixty 
cents  a  dozen  and  bread  six  cents  a  loaf, 


14      THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

there  was  an  article  in  a  home  publica- 
tion on  the  importance  of  saving  bread 
crumbs,  and  as  an  illustration  how  to  do 
this  a  recipe  for  a  bread-pudding  was 
given.  This  called  for  a  cup  of  bread 
crumbs,  value  less  than  a  cent,  and  five 
eggs,  cost  twenty-five  cents,  and  milk, 
sugar,  and  heat.  To  spend  twenty-five 
cents  to  save  five  is  waste ;  to  spend 
twenty-five  cents  to  save  thirty  is  gain. 
It  is  not  economy  to  spend  time,  ma- 
terials, and  strength  in  making  something 
that  the  family  will  not  like  when  it  is 
done. 

The  average  cook,  and  housekeeper, 
too,  if  she  has  three  oranges  and  is  mak- 
ing an  orange-pudding  which  requires 
two  oranges,  will  use  the  three.  If  the 
housewife  objects  to  using  three  when  two 
are  enough  she  very  likely  will  hear  her 
cook  ask,  "  What's  the  use  of  being  so 
stingy  with  them  ?  What  is  one  orange 
good  for  ?  "  If  the  housekeeper  can  tell 


WHAT  THRIFT  IS  AND  IS  NOT     15 

her,  the  cook  will  appreciate  the  thrift, 
otherwise  she  will  continue  to  waste. 

There  is  an  old  proverb  of  our  grand- 
mother's day  that  is  equally  true  to-day 
though  not  as  often  heard  :  "  a  woman 
can  throw  out  with  a  spoon  in  the  kitchen 
more  than  a  man  can  bring  in  with  a 
shovel."  That  is  because  a  woman  gen- 
erally does  not  realize  that  what  she 
throws  out  has  any  money  value.  There 
is  no  more  exacting  business  than  house- 
keeping and  home-making.  Those  wives 
who  think  it  beneath  them  and  unworthy 
of  their  attention  simply  show  their  ig- 
norance of  what  it  is.  That  there  are  so 
many  who  feel  time  spent  in  work  at 
home  to  be  time  wasted  explains  in  a  large 
part  why  the  cost  of  living  has  steadily 
increased.  All  waste  raises  the  cost  of 
living.  What  is  wasted  must  be  supplied 
in  some  other  way.  Had  women  handled 
the  money  in  past  years  they  would  have 
had  a  better  understanding  of  the  value 


16      THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

of  things  with  which  they  worked.  So 
many  women  do  not  have  the  spending 
of  cash  that  they  do  not  know  what  one 
hundred  cents  are  good  for. 

If  the  garbage  pail  is  always  full,  if  the 
housewife  says,  "  My  cake  isn't  as  good 
as  usual.  I  didn't  have  good  luck  with 
it  this  time,"  there  is  much  waste  in  that 
household.  There  is  no  luck  about  cook- 
ing. Cooking  is  the  combination  of  care 
and  brains  expressed  in  the  arrangement 
of  certain  materials.  Cooking  is  a  branch 
of  chemistry,  and  should  be  followed  with 
equal  painstaking.  Then,  it  will  be 
equally  effective. 

It  is  very  thriftless  to  cook  without 
recipes  unless  one  has  cooked  so  much 
that  with  her  experience  she  has  learned 
to  measure  by  eye  and  feel.  Also,  it  is 
thriftless  for  one  who  has  much  cooking 
to  do  not  to  master  the  principles  of  cook- 
ing that  she  may  become  independent  of 
recipes.  A  good  cook  knows  as  soon  as 


WHAT  THRIFT  IS  AND  IS  NOT     17 

she  reads  a  recipe  whether  or  not  it  is 
worth  cooking ;  there  is  a  law  of  propor- 
tion and  affinity  governing  the  combina- 
tion of  food  materials,  and  the  less  money 
you  have  to  spend  on  food,  the  more  it  is 
to  your  advantage  to  know  the  laws  of 
cooking  and  how  to  apply  them. 

An  empty  garbage  pail  is  the  certain 
indication  of  two  things  :  how  to  buy  and 
how  to  use  what  one  has  bought.  Thrift 
does  not  put  slices  of  bread,  halves  of  stale 
loaves,  bits  of  vegetables,  cheese,  bones, 
and  scraps  of  meat  into  the  garbage  pail. 
Thrift  appreciates  that  a  cold  potato  rep- 
resents the  amount  that  potato  cost  plus 
the  expense  for  heat  to  cook  it ;  it  knows 
that  a  loaf  of  cake  spoiled  or  bread 
burned,  anything  that  carelessness  has 
left  to  become  sour  or  worthless,  repre- 
sents an  expenditure  of  money  equivalent 
to  what  it  will  cost  to  replace  and  cook 
it.  The  woman  who  leaves  dough  stick- 
ing to  her  mixing-pan  will  lose  consider- 


18      THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

able  bread  before  the  year  is  done,  and 
she  will  lose  it  not  merely  in  that  one 
channel  but  in  others,  for  one  is  careless 
in  many  things  if  she  is  in  one. 

A  very  small  leak  in  a  ship  if  left  un- 
heeded will  sink  a  good-sized  vessel ;  so 
the  happiness  of  many  a  household  is 
wrecked  on  small  things.  There  can  be 
no  real  happiness  in  a  home  where  the 
outgo  is  the  same  as  the  income  or  greater, 
and  wherever  that  is  the  case  there  are 
leakages  in  the  kitchen.  It  is  absolutely 
impossible  for  a  man  to  get  ahead  finan- 
cially if  there  is  not  good  management 
in  the  kitchen,  and  good  management 
means  taking  heed  of  trifles.  The  di- 
rection that  Christ  gave  His  people, 
"  Gather  up  the  fragments  that  remain, 
that  nothing  be  lost/'  has  a  practical 
merit  to-day. 


CHAPTER  II 
BUYING 


CHAPTER  II 
BUYING 

THERE  are  two  avenues  through  which 
thrift  is  cultivated  :  buying  and  manag- 
ing. Usually  one  is  advised  to  buy  in 
quantity,  and  if  one  has  storage  room, 
that  reduces  the  cost  of  articles  consider- 
ably. Large  families  serve  thrift  by  buy- 
ing in  quantity,  but  small  families  living 
in  flats  may  find  quantity-buying  very 
wasteful.  For  a  large  family  to  buy  flour 
by  the  bag  is  as  foolish  as  for  a  small 
family  to  buy  it  by  the  barrel.  There  is 
more  loss  proportionately  to  flour  in  the 
bag  because  it  sifts  through  the  holder, 
but  for  the  small  family  the  loss  is 
smaller  than  it  would  be  to  have  a  barrel 
of  flour  which  before  it  could  be  eaten 

would   become   musty,  possibly  wormy, 
21 


22      THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

unless  there  were  unusual  facilities  for 
keeping  it. 

Cereals  and  meals,  which  are  only 
other  forms  of  a  cereal,  do  not  keep  long 
unless  in  a  thoroughly  dry  atmosphere 
and  therefore  should  be  bought  in  such 
quantity  that  they  will  be  eaten  before 
must  or  insects  corrupt.  Even  rice  and 
the  so-called  sterilized  grains  will  become 
wormy  if  kept  by  the  month  before  using. 
Canned  goods  are  wisely  purchased  by 
the  dozen  or  the  case.  Of  most,  the  case 
contains  four  dozen  jars.  There  is  a  re- 
duction by  the  dozen  usually,  though 
since  prices  have  become  so  high  many 
dealers  will  not  sell  by  the  dozen  or  case. 
They  prefer  to  retail  the  cans  getting  the 
larger  price  for  them.  If  you  get  a  re- 
duction of  only  a  cent  on  a  can  there  is  a 
considerable  saving  when  you  think  of 
all  the  canned  fruits  and  vegetables  that 
go  to  satisfy  the  appetite  of  the  ordinary 
family.  Remember  the  words  of  Poor 


BUYING  23 

Richard,  "Take  care  of  the  pennies, 
and  the  dollars  will  take  care  of  them- 
selves. " 

I  believe  it  is  wiser  to  buy  regularly  at 
the  same  stores  than  to  wander  about 
looking  for  bargains.  Very  often  so- 
called  bargains  have  short  weight  or 
other  weaknesses.  Every  store  has  oc- 
casional bargains,  not  always  advertised, 
sales  of  special  values ;  in  the  better 
stores  it  is  to  the  regular  customers  that 
knowledge  01  these  is  given,  because  there 
never  is  enough  of  the  stock  on  sale  to  be 
offered  for  general  buying. 

Prices  are  lower  in  the  stores  that  in- 
sist on  cash  sales  and  do  not  deliver 
goods.  It  is  proper  they  should  be  lower, 
for  the  expenses  of  such  stores  are  greatly 
reduced  below  those  where  deliveries  are 
made  of  every  little  order  any  time  of  day, 
and  cash  in  hand  enables  a  merchant  to 
buy  more  cheaply  and  so  to  sell  at  better 
advantage  to  the  buyer.  These  cash 


24       THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

stores  save  the  salaries  of  bookkeepers 
made  necessary  by  charge  accounts,  and 
they  are  also  free  from  losses  from  uncol- 
lectible bills. 

When  men  are  buyers  they  watch  the 
printed  list  of  prices  and  conditions  of 
what  they  will  buy  ;  when  women  are 
buyers  they  often  go  to  their  buying  with- 
out knowing  anything  about  the  standard 
price  and  variations  from  that.  They  do 
not  know  whether  articles  are  plenty  and 
cheap  or  scarce  and  high.  Men  know 
what  they  should  be  charged  for  what 
they  buy;  women  often  buy  without 
asking  the  price  of  what  they  are  get- 
ting. 

In  every  city  of  any  size  a  market  price 
list  is  printed  once  or  twice  a  week  giving 
prices  and  market  conditions  of  foods. 
The  home  member  of  the  matrimonial 
partnership  should  study  these  lists. 
Even  if  she  pays  as  much  she  will  know 
more  what  she  gets.  The  buyer  should 


BUYING  25 

know  if  she  is  getting  sixteen  ounces  to 
the  pound. 

A  scale  for  the  kitchen  running  as  high 
as  twenty-five  pounds  is  almost  as  great 
a  necessity  as  a  dishpan.  If  you  pay 
nine  and  a  half  cents  a  pound  for  sugar 
and  get  fifteen  ounces  only  instead  of  a 
full  pound  you  will  pay  for  many  pounds 
of  sugar  that  you  never  get.  Perhaps 
you  lack  the  moral  courage  to  exact  of 
your  dealer  what  belongs  to  you.  Re- 
member that  any  one  who  is  willing  to 
be  robbed  will  always  find  the  thief  to 
rob  her. 

It  is  possible  to  avoid  any  unpleasant- 
ness in  securing  your  dues  by  saying  to  a 
grocer  with  whom  you  begin  trading, 
"  I  see  that  your  measures  are  full  and 
generous  to  your  customers.  I  always 
weigh  my  packages  and  it  is  a  satisfaction 
to  know  that  you  are  as  just  to  me  as  to 
yourself."  Thus  you  accomplish  three 
things :  you  show  that  you  are  "  on  your 


26       THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

job/'  that  you  are  watching  how  things 
go,  and  you  tell  him  this  by  praise,  which 
is  better  than  finding  fault. 

If  a  package  is  short-weight  and  you 
wish  to  continue  to  trade  there  you  can 
say,  "  I  would  like  to  have  you  see  to  this 
yourself  as  last  time  your  clerk  was  care- 
less with  his  weighing."  If  you  have  no 
grounds  for  praise  you  should  take  your 
business  elsewhere,  and  not  help  a  man 
to  success  in  thievery,  for  he  is  as  truly  a 
thief  who  takes  an  ounce  from  your 
pound  as  he  is  who  takes  the  money  for 
it  from  your  pocket. 

Another  great  waste  for  the  consumer 
has  developed  from  what  is  said  to  be  a 
commendable  measure,  that  is,  the  fancy 
box  and  carton  business.  This  is  claimed 
to  be  more  sanitary,  and  so  it  is  in  a  few 
instances,  but  as  a  whole  it  is  a  claim  un- 
justified by  facts,  and  a  decided  item  in 
increasing  the  cost  of  living.  In  some 
instances  it  more  than  doubles  the  cost 


BUYING  27 

of  the  article  contained.  It  is  sanitary  to 
wrap  bread,  cakes,  pies,  crackers,  and  ar- 
ticles to  be  eaten  without  further  cook- 
ing, but  what  good  is  served  by  placing 
in  close  cartons  such  foods  as  rice,  and 
those  things  which  must  be  cooked  before 
serving?  All  cereals  are  thoroughly 
cooked  after  being  taken  from  cartons 
and  are  thus  sterilized.  Why  pay  double 
for  them?  Corn  meal  sold  in  cartons 
costs  nearly  three  times  as  much  as 
that  bought  in  bulk.  It  keeps  no  better, 
tastes  no  better,  and  must  go  through  the 
same  processes  for  cooking  as  that  bought 
by  the  pound.  The  same  is  true  of  other 
things. 

The  first  package  I  ate  of  seeded  raisins 
stated  on  the  wrapper  that  they  were 
cleaned,  and  being  of  a  naturally  trusting 
nature  I  used  the  raisins  in  a  cake  with- 
out washing.  The  cake  was  spoiled. 
From  a  cupful  of  raisins,  sold  in  cartons 
because  of  cleanliness,  I  have  found  a 


28       THKIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

saltspoonful  of  sand,  beside  stalks.  The 
cook  who  does  not  wash  her  raisins  will 
have  regrets  and  a  few  other  things. 
Then,  why  not  buy  raisins  by  the  pound 
rate  open?  The  same  is  true  of  dried 
fruits  and  many  other  articles.  They  all 
have  to  be  as  carefully  looked  over, 
washed,  and  treated  as  if  they  had  not 
been  placed  in  cartons  as  a  sanitary  meas- 
ure for  cleanliness.  There  is  a  good  deal 
of  humbug  about  the  extra  cleanliness  of 
things  packed  in  special  containers,  but 
there  is  no  doubt  that  some  things  are 
better  thus  treated  and  that  more  are  not. 
Employ  containers  for  cooked  foods,  omit 
them  for  foods  to  be  cooked,  and  thus 
encourage  thrift. 

Whether  it  is  thrift  to  make  all  dealings 
on  a  cash  basis  or  to  run  accounts  is  a 
mooted  question  with  something  to  be 
said  on  both  sides  and  the  weight  in 
favor  of  cash  payments.  Running  bills 
usually  leads  to  spending  more ;  it  is  so 


BUYING  29 

easy  to  say,  "  Charge  it,"  when  you  see 
something  tempting  that  you  would  not 
buy  if  you  were  paying  cash  for  every- 
thing. Persons  who  spend  recklessly  by 
instinct  should  never  run  bills — they  will 
find  the  entire  income  mortgaged  before 
it  is  due.  Those  who  calculate  all  ex- 
penses of  the  household  and  have  will 
enough  to  hold  by  their  calculations  have 
the  use  of  their  money  thirty  days  longer, 
and  of  credit  in  an  emergency,  for  it  is 
one  of  the  peculiarities  of  the  business 
world  that  it  is  easier  for  a  man  to  get 
credit  who  is  slack  about  paying  for  what 
he  buys  than  for  a  man  who  has  always 
followed  the  Biblical  injunction  to  "owe 
no  man  anything."  If  such  a  one  asks 
time  it  is  at  once  taken  for  granted  that 
conditions  are  unfavorable  with  him  and 
that  he  will  be  a  risk  to  the  merchant. 

The  average  consumer  will  save  ten 
per  cent,  by  living  on  a  cash  basis  and 
have  the  satisfaction  of  knowing  what 


30       THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

money  she  has  is  hers.  The  apostle  of 
thrift  will  favor  living  on  a  cash  basis 
and  making  the  most  of  what  one  has. 
If  the  housewife  is  allowed  only  five  dol- 
lars weekly  for  her  table  she  must  plan 
so  carefully  that  she  has  at  least  a  dime 
left  with  which  to  build  a  reserve  fund. 
Thrift  lies  in  small  savings.  Unless  she 
saves  her  little  she  can  never  become  a 
thrifty  buyer.  It  is  always  possible  to 
save  something  if  one  does  not  despise 
the  day  of  small  things.  It  may  not  be 
possible  to  save  a  quarter  though  it  will 
be  to  save  a  nickel  or  dime.  Thrift 
makes  the  housewife  plan  according  to 
her  income,  not  according  to  her  desires. 
No  one  claims  that  a  table  can  be  as  well 
furnished  or  as  much  can  be  done  with 
five  dollars  as  with  three  times  that 
amount,  but  the  skill  of  the  housewife 
and  the  mistress  of  thrift  is  never  better 
employed  than  in  making  her  wits  do  the 
most  that  can  be  done  with  what  she  has. 


BUYING  31 

Until  one  tries  to  do  it  she  has  no  idea 
how  interesting  she  can  find  the  accom- 
plishing of  this  aim.  To  the  doer  the 
promise  holds  true :  "  Thou  hast  been 
faithful  over  a  few  things,  I  will  make 
thee  a  ruler  over  many  things." 

There  is  a  mistaken  idea  of  thrift  which 
sometimes  influences  the  would-be  econ- 
omist to  buy  articles  by  their  cost  price 
alone,  without  reflecting  whether  the 
lower  price  gives  proper  value  for  what 
is  bought,  whether  it  has  as  much  propor- 
tionately of  material  as  the  higher  priced. 
It  is  not  what  you  pay  that  makes  the 
important  factor  in  living  but  what  you 
get  for  what  you  pay.  For  instance : 
here  are  two  baskets  of  apples ;  the  fruit 
in  one  is  large  and  speckless,  that  of  the 
other  is  windfalls,  bruised,  gnarly,  and  the 
second  is  one-third  less  in  price  than  the 
first.  The  second  will  prove  the  dearer 
because  it  has  so  large  an  amount  of 
waste ;  the  first  has  almost  no  waste,  for 


32      THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

the  skins  are  so  smooth  and  fine  that 
from  them  and  the  cores  may  be  made 
several  glasses  of  jelly.  From  the  second 
basket  will  be  no  such  profit.  In  con- 
sumption of  time  for  preparation  twice 
as  much  will  be  necessary. 

A  good  housewife  who  never  bought 
poor  supplies  once  said  to  a  critic  of  her 
methods,  "  Only  rich  people  can  afford  to 
buy  poor  stuff,  since  they  do  not  suffer  if 
a  few  dollars  are  thrown  away  in  waste." 

The  boarding-house  keeper  who  bought 
two  seven-pound  turkeys  instead  of  one 
large  bird  was  not  thrifty.  The  larger 
birds  are  a  trifle  less  in  cost  per  pound, 
the  intestinal  waste  of  the  larger  bird  and 
the  skeleton  is  less  than  of  two  smaller 
birds  and  the  meat  is  richer.  How  do  I 
know  about  the  waste  of  the  two?  I 
weighed  the  waste  when  I  was  buying  to 
know  how  much  was  thrown  away.  The 
larger  birds  have  more  meat  in  propor- 
tion to  skeleton.  It  costs  more  in  time 


BUYING  33 

to  prepare  two  birds  than  one.  In  every 
respect  the  large  bird  is  the  more  thrifty 
purchase  for  a  large  family  than  the  same 
weight  of  birds  in  two  bodies. 

The  foundation  of  true  thrift  is  getting 
the  proportion  of  most  for  the  expen- 
diture, not  the  price.  One  does  not  learn 
this  relation  all  at  once  or  by  accident, 
but  by  computation.  Once  learned  you 
may  build  on  it  your  home  of  thrift. 
"There  is  that  scattereth,  and  yet  in- 
creaseth,  and  there  is  that  withholdeth 
more  than  is  meet,  but  it  tendeth  to  pov- 
erty." The  knowledge  of  this  and  the 
ability  to  use  the  knowledge  are  thrift. 

This  principle  explains  why  of  two  cuts 
of  meat  at  the  same  price  one  is  extrava- 
gant and  the  other  is  not.  It  is  not  alone 
the  cost  of  porterhouse  that  makes  it  in- 
advisable for  one  of  small  means,  but  the 
proportion  of  waste  in  bone  and  fat  for 
which  one  pays.  You  must  always  re- 
member you  are  paying  for  all  this  waste 


34:       THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

at  the  same  price  you  are  paying  for  the 
delicious  meat. 

Never  buy  second-class  canned  goods 
but  those  you  have  tested  and  know  to 
be  reliable.  At  times  there  are  sales  of 
these  to  make  way  for  the  new  and  then 
it  is  good  buying  to  get  what  you  need. 
Good  cans  have  ends  slightly  concaved 
and  if  dented  will  remain  so.  Twice- 
soldered  cans  are  not  to  be  recommended. 

Keep  all  articles  in  tin,  earthenware, 
or  glass,  although  no  acids  nor  liquids 
should  be  kept  in  tin.  Have  containers 
lettered  so  that  you  do  not  handle  more 
than  the  one  wanted  when  you  go  for 
anything,  and  keep  the  covers  on  them 
when  not  being  used. 

Nearly  all  kitchen  supplies  may  well 
be  bought  in  quantity,  as  most  of  them 
improve  with  keeping.  Polishes,  starch, 
blueing,  all  kinds  of  soap,  cleansing-pow- 
der, clothes-pins,  and  such  things,  are 
cheaper  a  year's  supply  at  a  time. 


BUYING  35 

Sugar  keeps  indefinitely  and  should 
the  price  ever  lower  it  will  be  decidedly 
thrifty  to  lay  in  a  supply.  Never  keep 
sugar — or  anything  else — in  a  damp  store- 
room. It  is  also  far  from  thrifty  for  any 
family  to  live  in  a  damp  house,  too  damp 
to  store  supplies,  since  it  induces  disease, 
and  disease  is  a  very  heavy  expense. 
Sickness  soon  reduces  any  surplus,  so 
that  anything  which  induces  depleted 
strength,  whether  it  be  feeding,  dressing, 
thinking,  is  extravagant.  One  of  the 
thriftiest  habits  is  that  of  making  the 
sun  welcome  in  home  and  self.  The  best 
germ-killer  is  God's  own,  the  sunshine. 

Let  us  sum  up  the  matter  of  buying 
thus  :  Pay  cash  for  everything,  or  settle 
all  bills  at  end  of  a  definite  time,  by  week 
or  month. 

Examine  all  supplies  as  they  come  in, 
having  a  sales  order  slip  by  which  to 
check  them,  and  to  insure  their  being  of 
quality  and  amount  ordered.  Put  them 


36       THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

away  in  their  containers  as  soon  as 
checked. 

See  that  your  maid  is  as  careful  in  use 
of  goods  bought  in  quantity  as  if  they 
were  bought  by  the  pound,  and  train 
yourself  to  the  same  care  if  you  do  your 
own  work.  Sugar  and  flour  require 
special  care  to  save  waste  as  you  take 
from  the  bins. 

Buy  when  things  are  in  season,  not 
when  they  are  dearest,  which  is  when 
they  are  out  of  season.  Buy  fruits  and 
vegetables  for  canning  when  and  where 
they  are  most  abundant.  That  is  when 
they  are  cheapest,  and  also  the  best. 
Things  out  of  season  are  seldom  as  good 
as  when  their  proper  time  for  being  eaten 
has  come. 


CHAPTER  III 

MANAGING,  AND  LITTLE 
LEAKS 


CHAPTER  III 
MANAGING,  AND  LITTLE  LEAKS 

MANAGING  is  the  art  and  science  of 
using  to  the  best  advantage  what  has  been 
brought  into  the  house.  There  is  no  part 
of  the  household  economy  where  it  is  not 
called  upon,  no  part  which  is  not  the  bet- 
ter for  what  New  England  means  when  it 
says  of  a  housekeeper  :  "  She  has  faculty." 
Solomon  knew  her  in  his  time  and  she 
to-day  is  the  woman  who  "  looketh  well 
to  the  ways  of  her  household."  It  is  in- 
teresting to  notice  how  like  the  twentieth- 
century  manager  is  to  this  old-time  woman 
in  essentials,  though  conditions  have 
changed  so  greatly.  Read  the  last  chap- 
ter of  Proverbs  and  learn  what  she  was 

and  4s. 

39 


40      THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

Managing  means  the  charge  of  waste  as 
well  as  the  first  use  of  everything.  It  is 
in  the  department  of  management  that 
the  wreck  of  the  home  happiness  comes 
and  financial  anxiety  with  an  incompetent 
manager.  A  good  manager  keeps  things 
comfortable.  Her  mind  is  easy  and  there- 
fore she  produces  ease.  She  needs  no 
advice  but  gives  it  to  those  who  cannot 
manage  time,  duties,  or  money  success- 
fully. 

System  is  the  secret  of  good  manage- 
ment, and  it  extends  to  the  smallest  de- 
tail of  home  affairs.  It  softens  greatly 
the  jolts  of  difficult  experiences. 

She  who  has  learned  to  prevent  little 
leaks  in  the  home  has  learned  how  to 
make  the  dollars  count  for  one  hundred 
cents.  So  many  of  them  are  there  that 
one  might  fill  a  large  book  with  a  list  of 
them.  One  great  mistake  for  the  would- 
be  devotee  of  thrift  is  to  cook  too  much 
at  once.  Monotony  in  diet  spoils  the  ap- 


MANAGING,  AND  LITTLE  LEAKS    41 

petite,  the  digestion,  and  wastes  the  food 
cooked,  for  it  is  refused.  Sometimes  it  is 
well  to  cook  in  large  quantities,  for  many 
things  need  hours  for  their  cooking,  and 
it  is  as  cheap  to  cook  much  as  only  what 
will  be  used  at  a  single  time.  The  extra 
quantity  may  be  canned  and  saved  until 
wanted.  For  instance,  it  takes  no  more 
fuel  to  cook  three  pounds  of  prunes  than 
to  cook  half  a  pound,  so  I  always  cook  the 
three  pounds  and  can  all  but  enough  for 
two  meals.  As  my  family  is  small  it  is 
more  convenient  to  can  often.  I  fill  ajar 
or  more  as  I  have  material,  set  it  in  the 
bottom  part  of  the  steamer  when  I  am 
cooking  dinner  and  the  same  heat  steril- 
izes it  that  cooks  something  else.  Excess 
meats,  soups,  vegetables,  and  even  oat- 
meal may  be  saved  in  this  way  until  one 
wants  it.  It  is  thrift  to  preserve  food 
thus  and  the  amount  quickly  accumulates. 
In  our  family  we  dislike  to  see  the  same 
dish  served  twice  in  succession,  and  as  we 


42       THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

consider  waste  wicked  we  avoid  it  by 
canning. 

The  folly  of  cooking  too  much  for  one 
or  two  servings  lies  with  those  who  have 
not  learned  what  to  do  with  the  extra 
amount.  I  once  saw  ten  cold  potatoes  in 
the  garbage  pail  of  a  friend  whose  whole 
married  life  had  been  a  struggle  with 
debt.  "  Why  don't  you  use  your  potatoes 
in  some  other  way,  in  salad,  croquettes, 
baked  with  cheese  or  onions,  or  fried  ?  " 
"  My  family  don't  like  them  fixed  up  in 
any  of  those  ways."  Would  not  the 
economic  consideration  of  that  fact  have 
led  to  cooking  just  enough  for  the  one 
meal?  It  is  poor  planning  that  leaves 
ten  good  potatoes  to  be  wasted.  Do  you 
know  there  are  over  three  hundred  ways 
in  which  potatoes  may  be  prepared  ? 

A  skillful  manager  will  overbalance 
the  weakness  of  a  poor  buyer,  but  no 
buyer  can  cover  the  defects  of  a  poor 
manager.  It  is  the  little  wastes  that  des- 


MANAGING,  AND  LITTLE  LEAKS    43 

troy  the  family's  peace  of  mind,  though 
they  may  not  average  a  farthing's  worth 
each  but  they  are  so  many  they  amount 
to  pounds  when  a  year  is  done.  They 
are  to  the  house  what  nail-holes  would 
be  to  a  ship  if  thousands  were  in  the 
hull.  In  no  department  of  the  unthrifty 
is  there  freedom  from  small  wastes.  They 
increase  the  gas  and  coal  bills,  help  the 
plumber  to  get  rich  by  stopping  up  the 
pipes,  fill  the  garbage  pail,  and  so  on 
ad  infinitum.  Let  us  consider  some  of 
the  little  wastes. 

Soap  lies  soaking  in  dish  or  laundry 
water.  Green  soap  is  used  instead  of  old. 
Bits  of  soap  are  thrown  away.  Dish- 
towels  are  taken  for  holders  and  burned. 
Gas  ranges  are  left  lighted  when  no 
cooking  is  going  on,  or  gas  is  left  going 
full  head  when  a  dim  light  would  serve  as 
well.  In  homes  that  use  stoves  instead 
of  gas  ranges  cords  of  wood  in  the  shape 
of  boxes  are  thrown  out,  yet  it  all  has 


44      THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

heating  possibilities.  Rags  and  papers 
are  thrown  out  and  so  scarce  has  such 
material  become  that  the  price  of  paper 
has  risen  high  enough  to  bring  failure  to 
many  publications.  I  have  a  friend  who 
saved  his  newspapers  and  started  his 
son's  college  fund  by  a  sale  of  those 
saved  in  a  short  time.  They  brought 
eight  dollars,  and  the  price  was  lower 
than  it  has  since  been.  When  the  three- 
year-old  has  become  of  college  age  the 
practice  of  that  kind  of  thrift  will  have 
amounted  to  considerable. 

In  the  kitchen  waste  runs  riot,  often 
when  the  housekeeper  is  her  own  maid. 
Cheese  is  kept  in  a  damp  place  and  be- 
comes covered  with  a  white  mould  ;  bits 
of  it  that  are  dried  are  thrown  out ;  ends, 
crumbs,  and  bits  of  bread  accumulate  in 
the  garbage  pail ;  a  cup  of  peas  or  beans, 
a  spoonful  of  this  or  that  vegetable,  bones 
and  scraps  from  roasts  and  chops,  left- 
over gravies,  all  go  with  the  bread.  All 


MANAGING,  AND  LITTLE  LEAKS    45 

of  these  have  possibilities  of  usefulness 
and  are  just  that  much  money  wasted. 

Milk  and  cream  sour  for  lack  of  atten- 
tion and  as  soon  as  sour  are  turned  out. 
Fruit  juices  are  turned  down  the  sink. 
Potatoes  are  pared  so  generously  that 
more  goes  with  the  peeling  than  into  the 
pot.  Bacon  fat  is  turned  down  the  sink, 
thus  disposing  of  one  of  the  best  and 
most  useful  fats  by  stopping  up  the  drain- 
pipe. 

Cold  potatoes  and  other  vegetables  are 
left  to  sour ;  dried  fruits  and  cereals  be- 
come wormy  for  want  of  attention  ;  food 
is  left  in  tin,  which  induces  unwhole- 
some changes  in  it ;  all  kinds  of  winter 
vegetables  and  apples  are  left  to  sprout 
and  decay  for  want  of  picking  over. 

Boxes  of  tea,  coffee,  and  spices  are  left 
open  and  the  flavor  of  each  is  gone;  some- 
times these  things  are  kept  in  paper  bags, 
which  is  worse  yet ;  sugar,  tea,  coffee, 
rice,  and  flour  are  spilled  and  wasted  in 


4:6       THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

handling;  brooms  and  mops  are  worn 
out  by  being  set  on  the  floor.  They 
should  be  hung. 

Tin  dishes  are  not  properly  dried  or 
are  melted  by  being  set  on  the  stove  to 
dry.  Tin  is  less  thriftful  to  buy  than 
enamel,  agate,  or  aluminum.  The  dif- 
ference in  cost  is  more  than  saved  in  the 
wear  of  the  dishes.  More  coal  is  burned 
than  needed  by  not  closing  dampers  when 
fire  is  not  used. 

New  brooms  are  used  for  scrubbing  and 
sweeping  paths.  Silver  spoons  are  taken 
for  scraping  kettles.  Sometimes  they  dis- 
appear in  the  garbage.  Steel  knives  lose 
their  handles  from  being  soaked  in  hot 
water.  Mustard  is  left  to  dry  in  the  pot ; 
pork  spoils  for  want  of  salt,  and  beef  brine 
needs  scalding.  Pickles  and  olives  spoil 
for  want  of  vinegar  or  fresh  brine. 
Woodenware  is  left  unscalded  and  warps, 
or  it  splits  from  being  dried  in  a  hot 
place.  Ammonia,  gasoline,  and  other 


MANAGING,  AND  LITTLE  LEAKS    4T 

volatile  substances  are  left  loosely  corked 
and  evaporate. 

Clothes  are  washed  with  strong  wash- 
ing-powder or  chloride  of  lime,  lye,  or 
soda  and  come  out  rotted  and  faded. 
Clothes  in  one  washing  have  been  per- 
forated with  tiny  holes  from  chloride-of- 
lime  washing-powder. 

There  are  little  wastes  at  the  table  as, 
for  instance,  putting  so  much  sugar  in 
your  cup  that  it  does  not  dissolve.  That 
means  sugar  enough  for  another  cup. 
Another  decided  waste  is  too  large  help- 
ings, which  is  not  to  be  changed  into  not 
giving  enough  to  eat,  but  it  is  wiser,  if 
one  would  save,  to  help  twice  than  to  put 
too  much  on  one's  plate  at  first. 

The  butter  cut  in  small  blocks  or  made 
in  shapes  and  served  on  the  bread  and 
butter  plate  is  to  be  advised  for  thrift. 
Of  course  you  do  not  throw  away  butter. 
On  the  plate  it  is  perfectly  clean  even  if 
left,  because  the  knife  used  for  it  is  used 


48       THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

only  for  that.     Let  the  serving  be  small 
but  repeated. 

Avoid  the  waste  that  comes  from  neg- 
lect of  your  tools.  Never  let  the  egg- 
beater  soak,  which  draws  oil  from  the 
gears,  but  wash  it  at  once  and  set  to  dry. 
Care  of  one's  tools  doubles  their  useful- 
ness. 


CHAPTER  IV 
LITTLE  ECONOMIES 


CHAPTER  IV 

LITTLE  ECONOMIES 

THERE  need  be  no  waste  in  the  home, 
for  much  that  seems  necessary  now  may 
be  eliminated  and  what  you  have  you 
can  turn  to  some  use.  In  the  matter  of 
garbage,  which  is  the  largest  evident 
waste,  there  may  be  something  helpful, 
particularly  for  one  who  has  hens  or  a 
garden.  When  garbage  is  nothing  but 
the  leavings  made  in  preparing  food  for 
cooking  it  is  proper  food  for  poultry,  and 
if  one  has  a  garden  it  makes  good  fertil- 
izer. For  this  it  is  planted  in  quite  a 
deep  hole.  The  earth  is  thrown  over  it, 
then  more  garbage  added  with  perhaps  a 
little  lime  if  the  land  needs  it.  Garbage 

may  be  placed  over  the  oven  of  the  coal 
51 


52       THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

range,  and  contrary  to  what  you  may  be- 
lieve, the  heat  of  the  fire  will  burn  it 
without  any  odor  if  the  damper  is  left  a 
little  open.  It  will  not  injure  the  stove 
nor  cool  the  oven.  These  ashes  are  a  fine 
dressing  for  garden  or  for  house-plants. 

Potato  peelings  are  strong  in  carbon 
and  if  dried  may  be  used  as  kindlings, 
but  the  truly  thrifty  housewife  cooks  her 
potatoes  in  their  jackets,  at  least  until  they 
can  be  peeled,  which  keeps  her  fingers 
from  being  discolored  and  saves  a  quarter 
of  an  hour  or  more  in  the  oven.  After 
the  peelings  can  be  removed  only  skin 
thick  the  potato  may  be  finished  in  oven 
or  pot.  Potatoes  thus  peeled,  then 
greased  very  lightly  all  over  and  baked 
in  a  hot  oven  are  as  nice  as  baked  pota- 
toes can  be,  and  what  is  better  ? 

Baking  potatoes  takes  considerable  gas 
and  every  moment  of  the  firing  means 
money  spent.  You  can  lessen  the  time 
by  boiling  the  potatoes  for  fifteen  or 


LITTLE  ECONOMIES  53 

twenty  minutes  and  finishing  them  in  a 
hot  oven.  They  will  be  equally  good. 

If  you  dislike  to  peel  potatoes  you  can 
boil  them  until  nearly  done,  then  peel 
and  continue  the  cooking.  Thus  you 
save  the  wastage  that  peeling  brings. 
The  best  of  the  potato  lies  near  the  skin. 

Old  potatoes  are  much  improved  by 
being  soaked  for  an  hour  or  more  in  cold 
water,  then  plunged  into  boiling  salted 
water.  Instead  of  peeling  them,  remove 
an  inch  of  the  skin  all  around.  All 
vegetables  not  directly  from  the  garden 
are  better  for  being  freshened  by  stand- 
ing a  while  in  cold  water. 

When  you  bake  potatoes  have  the 
skins  dry.  Wet  potatoes  lower  the  heat 
of  the  oven,  and  as  potatoes  are  largely 
starch  they  need  the  stronger  heat  to 
make  them  light.  The  heat  should  do 
to  the  starch  grains  of  the  potato  what 
it  does  to  the  corn  that  is  set  to  pop  over 
the  coals. 


54:       THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

Use  the  little  bits  of  potatoes  that  are 
too  small  for  the  table  by  boiling,  mash- 
ing, and  adding  to  the  dough  for  bread 
or  doughnuts.  The  proportion  is  two- 
fifths  as  much  potato  as  flour.  Many 
cooks  will  tell  you  that  bread  with  the 
addition  of  potato  is  the  best  bread  that 
can  be  made.  These  small  potatoes  are 
as  good  as  any  for  frying,  croquettes,  or 
mashing,  and  though  it  is  tiresome  to 
prepare  them  it  is  as  good  a  way  of  saving 
money  or  earning  it  as  any  other.  "  A 
penny  saved  is  a  penny  earned."  There 
are  a  hundred  calls  for  each  cent  that  you 
save,  and  the  need  of  them  dignifies  your 
saving  of  the  pennies  by  using  little 
things  and  wasting  nothing. 

When  you  prepare  asparagus,  instead 
of  throwing  away  the  bottom  part  that 
you  break  off,  peel  it  until  you  come  to 
the  juicy  center.  Cut  it  in  inch  pieces, 
and  put  it  to  cook  half  an  hour  earlier 
than  you  do  the  better  part  of  the  stalks. 


LITTLE  ECONOMIES  55 

Do  not  salt  until  nearly  done.  You  will 
find  what  was  once  waste  will  be  edible 
and  tender.  Save  the  water  in  which 
you  cook  these  bits  as  well  as  the  aspara- 
gus proper ;  the  next  day  add  milk, 
thicken  if  you  prefer,  season,  and  have 
asparagus  soup.  Use  it  as  the  first  course 
of  a  dinner. 

Instead  of  buying  parsley  week  after 
week,  why  not  buy  a  pot  of  it?  It  is 
ornamental  and  grows  nicely  in  any 
sunny  window  and  may  be  grown  in 
winter  in  a  box  in  the  cellar  by  a  win- 
dow if  it  has  the  sunlight.  Parsley  is 
hard  to  start,  but  after  it  has  been  potted 
it  grows  well.  One  may  also  grow  a  pot 
of  thyme,  which  is  pretty  enough  to 
grow  for  its  own  sake  did  it  lack  the 
merit  of  being  one  of  the  best  of  season- 
ings. Crush  a  leaf  between  finger  and 
thumb  and  the  room  will  be  fresh  with 
its  fragrance.  Chives  also  may  be  added 
to  the  family  garden,  and  with  them 


56      THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

basil  and  marjoram.  A  window-box  will 
provide  such  a  garden  for  all  the  year, 
and  these  living  plants  will  at  most 
trifling  cost  furnish  seasonings  for  many 
kinds  of  food  and  additions  to  salads,  to 
make  them  different  and  delightful. 
The  leaves  may  be  gathered  occasionally, 
slowly  dried  and  ground  for  seasoning. 
For  the  out-of-door  garden  tarragon 
should  be  planted.  Added  to  cider  vine- 
gar it  becomes  the  delicious  tarragon 
vinegar  so  much  liked  for  salads. 

Tomatoes  originally  were  grown  as 
house-plants.  Our  grandmothers  raised 
them  in  pots  for  their  beauty,  without 
so  much  as  a  dream  that  one  day  they 
would  be  eaten  more  than  any  other 
vegetable  except  potatoes.  Then  they 
were  "  love  apples,"  and  held  to  be  deadly 
to  the  eater.  Is  there  any  reason  why 
she  who  would  have  delicacies  in  winter 
may  not  grow  her  tomatoes  in  a  sunny 
window  as  they  were  grown  for  years? 


LITTLE  ECONOMIES  57 

The  dwarf  varieties  can  be  grown  in  pots 
nicely.  Such  plants  have  thriven  in  the 
window  of  a  fireless  attic  where  the  sun 
came  for  the  greater  part  of  the  day,  but 
tomatoes  or  any  of  these  plants  will  do 
badly  if  subjected  to  coal  or  illuminating 
gas.  They  can  endure  considerable  cold 
if  helped  by  the  sun,  but  no  gas. 

One  of  the  greatest  economies  for  the 
cook  who  uses  a  gas  range  is  the  set  of 
steamers  in  which  she  may  cook  several 
things  at  once.  If  you  would  be  a  thrifty 
housewife,  provide  yourself  with  one  of 
these.  In  six  months  you  will  have 
about  saved  its  cost  in  your  gas  bill. 
With  a  set  of  steamers  you  can  prepare 
an  entire  dinner  without  having  the  odor 
of  one  thing  at  all  affect  the  foods  above 
it.  Do  not  buy  one  of  tin,  however 
cheaply  it  is  offered.  This  is  a  lesson  of 
experience.  I  bought  "  a  bargain."  It 
cost  forty-nine  cents  and  lasted  three 
weeks.  A  good  one  will  last  for  years. 


58       THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

Another  great  economy  that  means 
great  saving  in  fuel  and  in  time,  perhaps 
in  unspoiled  food,  is  a  fireless  cooker. 
You  can  have  one ;  if  you  cannot  afford 
to  buy  a  really  good  commercial  cooker 
you  can  make  one  yourself.  I  made 
mine  and  did  well  with  it.  Any  recep- 
tacle made  so  air-tight  that  the  cold  can- 
not get  in  will  keep  the  heat  from  getting 
out.  Take  a  box,  line  it  with  several 
layers  of  newspapers  either  pasted  or 
tacked  on.  Nearly  fill  it  with  hay  or 
sawdust  or  crumpled  paper.  Leave 
spaces  where  you  will  set  your  kettles. 
Pack  the  filling  as  tight  as  you  can 
around  them,  so  tight  that  the  hole  is 
left  when  you  take  the  kettle  out.  I 
used  mine  by  starting  the  food  cooking 
in  a  tin  that  would  fit  into  one  a  little 
larger.  In  the  second  I  placed  the  food 
receptacle  with  the  boiling  food,  and 
filled  the  second  with  boiling  water. 
Then  this  was  set  into  a  kettle  big 


LITTLE  ECONOMIES  59 

enough  to  hold  it  and  more  boiling 
water.  When  all  were  boiling  hot  they 
went  into  the  box,  each  being  covered 
closely,  and  were  covered  thickly  with 
the  same  stuff  as  the  remainder  of  the 
box  packing.  Thus  prepared,  the  food 
could  be  left  to  care  for  itself.  This  is 
an  excellent  way  of  cooking  tough  fowl 
or  meat.  Cereals  or  fruits  set  to  cooking 
like  this  when  you  go  to  bed  will  be 
ready  for  breakfast  the  next  morning. 
Nothing  ever  spoils  by  over-cooking,  and 
much  more  time  must  be  allowed  for 
preparing  a  meal  with  any  fireless  cook- 
ing. The  home-made  will  do  less  than 
the  best  sold  but  it  will  do  much  more 
than  none  at  all. 

The  results  obtained  in  flavor  with  a 
fireless  are  much  the  same  as  those  ob- 
tained by  casserole  cooking  in  a  hot  oven  ; 
in  each  case  the  juices  and  flavors  are  re- 
tained instead  of  dissipated  as  by  ordi- 
nary methods.  A  tightly  covered  earthen 


60       THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

bean-pot  is  a  true  casserole,  and  may  be 
used  for  the  same  dishes  with  much  satis- 
faction, though  not  as  fitting  to  set  upon 
the  table. 

Corn  cooked  on  the  cob  should  not  be 
wasted.  The  grains  may  be  taken  from 
the  cob  by  running  the  edge  of  a  sharp 
knife  between  the  rows,  not  cutting,  and 
these  grains  are  to  be  spread  in  a  thin 
layer  on  a  bake  sheet  and  dried  thor- 
oughly in  a  warm  oven.  When  dry, 
place  in  close  receptacle  and  keep  in 
cool,  dark,  dry  place.  The  dark  can  be 
secured  by  wrapping  thick  brown  paper 
around  the  receptacle.  To  use  this  corn, 
soak  it  overnight  previously.  Many 
persons  like  this  better  than  the  canned. 
It  may  be  used  for  soups,  corn  pudding, 
fritters,  or  any  other  purpose  for  which 
the  fresh  or  canned  corn  serves.  The 
corn  on  one  cob  will  make  corn  custard 
or  fritters  for  two. 

Bits  of  soap  which  accumulate,  either 


LITTLE  ECONOMIES  61 

in  kitchen  or  in  chambers,  may  serve 
another  term  by  being  set  to  boil  with  a 
little  hot  water  and  allowed  to  cool  in  a 
flat  dish  after  all  have  become  soft  and 
united  into  one  mass.  Then  from  the 
piece  may  be  cut  small  cakes  to  be 
wrapped  in  pretty  paper  and  appear  in 
the  bathroom.  For  the  kitchen,  let  the 
soap  be  left  in  a  jelly,  which  is  a  very 
convenient  shape  for  it  to  be  in  when  one 
has  scrubbing  or  laundry  to  be  done. 

Use  your  sour  milk  with  soda  for 
gingerbread,  biscuits,  griddle-cakes,  and 
such  things  and  you  will  have  lighter 
results  than  when  you  used  only  sweet 
milk.  If  you  are  afraid  of  getting  too 
much  soda,  use  with  it  a  like  measure 
of  cream  of  tartar.  Some  cooks  use  a 
spoonful  of  baking-powder  to  the  spoon- 
ful of  soda  and  then  the  bread  or  cake 
never  tastes  of  soda  or  has  a  golden  glow 
that  is  not  wanted.  Sour  cream  is  very 
good  in  salad-dressing.  If  there  is  con- 


62       THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

siderable  sour  milk  it  can  be  converted 
into  cottage-cheese  by  pouring  over  it 
boiling  water  until  it  is  cooked,  draining, 
and  dressing  with  a  little  butter  or  cream 
and  salt. 

In  cooking  rhubarb  or  cranberry  sauce, 
boil  until  nearly  done,  add  a  pinch  of 
soda,  and  sweeten  to  taste.  The  soda 
neutralizes  the  acid  and  about  half  as 
much  sugar  will  be  enough.  Too  much 
soda  will  make  the  rhubarb  tasteless. 
Combine  rhubarb  with  strawberries  if  you 
have  some  that  seem  not  quite  good 
enough  to  be  served  raw.  The  flavors 
combined  are  delicious. 

Oiled  surfaces,  whether  floor  or  lino- 
leum, should  not  be  wiped  with  soap  and 
water.  Wipe  with  a  cloth  wet  with  kero- 
sene. Do  not  use  ammonia  on  polished 
or  oiled  surfaces  or  on  any  surface  that 
you  do  not  want  cleaned  from  its  finish. 

Cook  fruits  slowly  to  bring  out  their 
sweetness.  This  makes  prunes  much 


LITTLE  ECONOMIES  63 

sweeter,  and  makes  it  unnecessary  to 
sweeten  prunes. 

Fabrics  soaked  in  borax  water  will 
come  out  clean  with  neither  cloth  nor 
color  injured.  Borax  water  does  not 
harm  the  hands  as  harsher  cleansers  do. 

Use  everything  left  over.  Bits  of  meat 
and  even  a  spoonful  of  gravy  will  help  to 
make  something  or  to  flavor  it,  and  a 
spoonful  of  jelly  or  jam  adds  to  the 
pudding-sauce  just  the  touch  it  needed. 

Has  your  hot-water  bottle  a  leak  ?  If 
it  is  from  a  broken  spot  in  the  rubber 
mend  it  with  layers  of  mending-tissue 
larger  than  the  hole.  Place  a  piece  of 
tissue,  hold  it  on  with  a  warm  iron,  and 
continue  until  four  or  five  have  been 
set.  Let  it  cool  and  harden  for  a  day  or 
more  before  using.  If  it  leaks  around 
the  stopper  it  needs  a  new  washer.  One 
can  be  put  in  place  and  the  bag  will  last 
a  long  time.  Do  not  be  in  haste  to  cast 
anything  aside. 


64      THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

As  a  hint  in  regard  to  what  you  can 
do  with  two  or  three  left-overs  try  this. 
Perhaps  you  have  two  or  three  potatoes, 
a  tablespoonful  of  onion.  Do  you  think 
there  is  nothing  to  be  done  with  them  ? 
Brown  the  onion  in  whatever  fat  you 
have,  the  cheapest  being  a  slice  of  fat 
pork  cut  in  small  pieces  and  tried  out. 
Leave  these  crisp  pieces  in  the  pan. 
After  the  onion  has  browned  a  little, 
add  the  potatoes  cut  in  dice.  Just  before 
serving  stir  in  a  cupful  of  milk  in  which 
you  have  beaten  two  eggs.  It  is  a  good 
supper  dish. 

You  can  vary  this  by  adding  to  it 
minced  green  pepper,  or  a  little  corn,  or 
lima  beans.  You  can  use  beans,  onions, 
tomatoes,  and  peppers  with  or  without 
potatoes  in  almost  any  proportion,  taking 
what  you  have  and  omitting  what  you 
have  not.  You  can  be  reasonably  cer- 
tain of  having  something  to  taste  good 
by  such  combinations  either  for  hot 


LITTLE  ECONOMIES  65 

dishes  or  for  salads.  The  one  rule  in 
making  a  left-over  into  something  is  to 
be  sure  it  tastes  good.  No  chef  can  do 
more. 

Lettuce  will  keep  a  week  fresh  and 
crisp  if  placed  in  a  cloth  or  paper  bag 
and  then  in  a  tight  pail.  Keep  it  in  a 
cool  place. 

Orange,  lemon,  and  grapefruit  peel  can 
be  saved,  cut  in  strips,  left  standing  in 
salted  water  overnight.  In  the  morning 
parboil  in  one  or  more  waters  to  draw  out 
the  bitterness,  of  which  with  grapefruit 
there  is  considerable,  though  with  orange 
and  lemon  only  little.  Then  boil  in  a 
thick  syrup.  Place  hot  in  jars  and  seal. 
With  boiled  rice,  it  is  excellent  for  des- 
sert ;  it  furnishes  another  dessert  with 
syrup  and  toasted  crackers  ;  and  it  may 
be  used  like  citron.  It  is  also  good  to 
eat  like  candy.  Baskets  of  candied  peel 
make  an  attractive  Christmas  or  birthday 
gift. 


66       THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

If  you  have  a  chop  or  steak  left  that 
has  been  cooked,  do  not  think  you  must 
discard  it  because  it  dries  when  one 
tries  to  warm  it.  Put  it  in  a  covered 
dish  in  a  steamer  and  let  it  heat  by 
steam.  The  steam  does  not  dry  it  as 
oven  or  pan  heat  does,  and  the  meat  will 
show  little  difference  from  newly  cooked 
meat  unless  the  cover  was  not  tight  and 
the  steam  ran  into  the  plate  as  water. 
Steaming  is  a  much  better  method  of  re- 
heating than  the  one  more  commonly 
used. 

Do  you  throw  away  the  green  stalks 
of  celery  and  the  leaves  and  then  do  you 
buy  celery  seed  or  ground  celery  for  sea- 
soning? That  is  contrary  to  thrift.  All 
the  leaves  and  stalks  not  good  for  the 
table  may  be  washed  and  those  which  are 
fit  for  it  cut  in  dice  for  salad,  and  some- 
times the  outer  stalks  are  excellent  when 
boiled  and  then  dressed  with  a  white 
sauce.  All  leaves  and  stalks  not  other- 


LITTLE  ECONOMIES  67 

wise  good  should  be  dried  in  a  slow  oven 
or  in  the  sunshine  and  then  run  through 
the  finest  of  the  meat-grinders.  It  is  the 
best  celery  seasoning  and  costs  nothing. 
Keep  in  tightly  closed  jars.  Keep  every 
kind  of  seasoning  in  a  close  receptacle. 
All  the  smell  that  creeps  out  is  that 
much  of  the  strength  of  the  seasoning 
being  lost. 

Tea  and  coffee  left  uncovered  soon  lose 
their  strength.  The  best  way  to  buy 
coffee  is  in  the  green  berry  and  in  large 
quantities,  as  in  the  green  berry  it  im- 
proves by  keeping.  To  get  the  full 
aroma  and  deliciousness  of  coffee  roast 
and  grind  it  just  before  making.  Use 
left-over  coffee  for  mixing  gingerbread 
or  for  gelatine  desserts.  Never  warm  it 
up  for  a  beverage,  as  the  flavor  of  coffee 
lies  in  a  volatile  oil  which  soon  goes  after 
the  coffee  is  made. 

Keep  a  little  bag  of  mustard  and  horse- 
radish in  the  mouth  of  a  pickle  jar  and 


68       THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

the  contents  will  not  mould.  If  pre- 
serves or  pickles  show  signs  of  mould, 
remove  the  mould  and  cook  up  again. 
Mould  is  not  a  sign  of  fermentation,  and 
unless  it  is  shaken  through  the  jar  will 
not  harm  preserves.  Old  ladies  some- 
times say  of  preserves,  "  They  are  sure  to 
be  good  for  there  is  mould  on  the  top." 
Unsealed  pickles  made  without  mustard 
and  horseradish  often  are  improved  by 
reheating. 

If  you  have  made  a  cake  and  it  fell, 
keep  it  and  next  day  steam  to  serve  as 
pudding,  with  a  good  sauce.  Usually  it 
comes  out  very  good  because  it  fell  from 
not  having  baked  enough.  If  cake  falls 
from  having  had  too  little  flour  mixed 
with  it,  break  it  up  and  soften  it  with 
milk  or  water,  as  little  as  possible,  then 
add  flour  to  make  a  stiff  dough  with 
baking-powder  in  the  usual  proportion 
to  the  amount  of  flour  you  add.  One 
mixing-cup  of  flour  is  half  a  pint.  Steam 


LITTLE  ECONOMIES  69 

or  bake,  allowing  twice  as  long  for  steam- 
ing as  for  baking.  Never  lift  the  lid  of 
the  steamer  while  cooking  cake,  dump- 
lings, or  puddings.  They  will  fall.  If 
water  boils  away,  add  boiling  water  at 
one  side  of  the  water  receptacle. 

It  is  true  thrift  to  make  and  bake 
without  chance  of  imperfect  result,  and 
this  is  simply  a  matter  of  care  and  at- 
tention to  details  of  mixing  and  baking. 
If  one  has  been  careless  she  does  well  to 
make  amends  as  directed  above.  It  is 
also  far  more  profitable  to  cook  only 
what  one  needs  and  to  cook  that  well 
than  to  have  left-overs  and  food  to  be 
worked  up  for  a  second  appearance. 
Practice  the  thrift  that  plans  according 
to  this  principle,  but  become  as  expert 
as  possible  on  using  left-over  articles  of 
food  because  there  will  always  be  some 
of  them.  If  you  want  to  know  what 
your  thrift  amounts  to  in  dollars  and 
cents,  try  putting  in  a  penny  bank  what- 


70      THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

ever  is  represented  by  the  food  you  do 
not  waste.  You  will  thus  get  a  realizing 
sense  what  thrift  means.  You  will  not 
have  gone  without  any  of  the  foods  you 
wanted,  but  you  will  have  made  them 
of  greater  value  to  the  family  treasury. 
Your  kitchen  scale  will  tell  you  how 
many  ounces  of  meat  or  other  substance 
goes  to  your  soup,  salad,  pie,  or  whatever 
you  make  for  your  economy.  It  becomes 
very  interesting  to  learn  the  practical 
cash  saving  by  such  economy,  and  this 
method  brings  realization.  It  will  sur- 
prise you.  Your  loaf  of  bread  cuts  a 
certain  number  of  slices,  the  whole  being 
priced  at  six  or  twelve  cents  at  present 
time.  How  much  do  you  waste  when 
you  throw  into  the  garbage  one  of  the 
slices,  or  how  many  fragments  does  it 
need  to  make  a  third  of  a  loaf? 

The  next  time  there  is  melted  ice-cream 
left  don't  say,  "  You  may  as  well  throw 
that  out ;  it  isn't  any  good  now."  Set  it 


LITTLE  ECONOMIES  71 

with  gelatine  for  blanc-mange,  or  thicken 
it  with  corn-starch  or  tapioca  for  pud- 
ding. Two  eggs  to  a  pint  of  liquid 
stirred  in  and  cooked,  makes  it  a  good 
custard.  You  can  use  the  left-over  cocoa 
or  chocolate  in  the  same  way,  or  you 
may  use  it  for  the  liquid  in  place  of  milk 
or  water. 

You  can  often  use  water  in  mixing  a 
cake  instead  of  milk  and  the  cake  will  be 
lighter  and  less  liable  to  scorch.  Dishes 
containing  milk  or  molasses  will  scorch 
readily.  Grease  well  the  dishes  in  which 
such  cakes  and  pudding  are  baked,  as 
they  stick  more  than  sugar-made  articles, 
and  when  you  lose  in  that  way  your 
profit  is  less. 

Save  gas  in  the  range  by  turning  off 
when  not  in  use  if  only  for  two  minutes. 
Matches  are  cheaper  than  gas.  Do  not 
light  until  wanted,  and  turn  off  five  min- 
utes before  removing  kettle  from  range. 
The  water  will  continue  to  boil  for  some 


72      THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

minutes  after  the  gas  is  out.  In  using 
the  gas  oven,  get  the  full  heat  and  then 
turn  out  the  gas  for  baking  articles  need- 
ing a  slight  heat.  Watch  the  oven,  and 
when  more  heat  becomes  necessary  light 
it  again.  Most  housewives  use  twice  as 
much  gas  for  the  oven  as  is  necessary. 
An  outside  lining  of  sheet  asbestos  makes 
the  oven  hold  heat  considerably  longer. 

Lemons,  cranberries,  and  rhubarb  may 
be  kept  a  long  time  if  covered  with  cold 
water  and  sealed.  Cut  rhubarb  in  inch 
pieces,  pack  in  jars,  let  the  cold  water 
from  the  faucet  run  on  it  until  it  has  no 
bubbles,  then  seal.  Keep  in  the  dark, 
and  it  will  remain  good  indefinitely  and 
can  be  used  like  the  fresh  plant.  The 
same  method  holds  good  with  cranberries. 
Lemons  need  the  water  renewed,  and  will 
not  keep  as  well  as  the  others.  When  they 
are  cheap,  squeeze  out  the  juice  and  mix 
it  half  and  half  with  sugar  until  ajar  is 
filled.  Seal.  It  is  ready  for  use  in  any 


LITTLE  ECONOMIES  73 

way  that  one  wants  lemon-juice.  A 
spoonful  to  a  glass  makes  an  excellent 
lemonade,  and  for  lemon  pie  it  is  as  good 
as  the  fresh  lemon.  This  mixture  keeps 
better  than  the  lemons. 

Grate  the  yellow  rind  into  pure  grain 
alcohol  and  let  it  stand.  Add  a  crystal 
of  citric  acid.  You  will  have  an  excellent 
extract  for  flavoring.  Use  only  enough 
alcohol  to  absorb  the  oil  of  the  lemon. 
Dilute  for  using.  I  make  orange,  ginger, 
and  vanilla  in  the  same  way.  Ginger- 
root  is  the  slowest  to  make  a  strong  ex- 
tract but  it  makes  a  better  extract  than 
one  buys,  because  it  is  stronger  and  costs 
less.  This  principle  is  that  on  which 
most  extracts  are  made.  You  must  not 
use  wood  alcohol,  or  denatured  alcohol. 
They  are  unsafe. 


CHAPTER  V 
VINEGARS.     EGGS 


CHAPTER  V 
VINEGAKS.    EGGS 

MAKE  your  own  vinegar.  Keep  your 
cider  until  it  turns  to  vinegar  or  add  to 
the  cider  vinegar  which  you  have  the  old 
cider,  and  fruit  juices  you  will  not  put 
into  pudding  sauces  or  other  things. 
The  vinegar  into  which  you  turn  your 
liquids  must  have  plenty  of  "  mother  " 
for  the  starter.  Add  the  water  in  which 
you  boiled  apple  peelings  not  to  be  made 
into  jelly.  Clean  potato  water  may  be 
added.  Nothing  should  be  hot  when 
turned  into  the  vinegar,  as  heat  destroys 
the  active  principle  in  the  mother.  If 
warm  it  will  the  sooner  begin  to  work. 
Keep  in  a  warm  place  until  fermentation 
has  ceased,  clarify  if  necessary,  and  strain 

the  vinegar  if  it  does  not  seem  clear.     If 

77 


78      THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

the  made  vinegar  does  not  clear  readily 
add  to  it  a  half-pint  of  sweet  milk  to 
a  gallon  of  vinegar.  It  will  curdle  and 
settle,  taking  with  it  the  impurities,  after 
which  it  may  be  bottled.  The  sediment 
will  be  the  working  part  of  a  new  vinegar. 
To  destroy  the  mother,  boil  it. 

Starting  with  this  vinegar  you  can 
make  fancy  vinegars  for  your  use  or  to 
give  your  friends.  The  general  rule  for 
making  flavored  vinegars  is  to  pour  the 
hot  acid  on  the  leaves  or  whatever  is  the 
base  of  the  new  vinegar,  and  leave  the 
two  to  stand  undisturbed  from  two  weeks 
to  a  month.  Fresh  leaves  are  better  than 
dried  but  not  as  easy  to  get.  Any  drug- 
gist has  the  dried  tarragon,  mint,  or  other 
herb,  but  the  growing  plants  are  not  often 
seen.  Onions,  horseradish,  mustard,  and 
celery,  as  well  as  herbs  may  be  treated 
with  the  hot  vinegar.  Mustard  and 
celery  seed  will  be  better  if  boiled  with 
the  vinegar.  Fancy  vinegars  sell  at 


VINEGARS.    EGGS  79 

fancy  prices  and  cannot  often  be  bought 
at  that. 

Last  fall  I  made  a  very  unusual  and 
good  vinegar  from  the  red  part  of  water- 
melon. The  modus  operandi  was  mash- 
ing the  melon,  the  pulp  and  juice  turned 
into  closed  receptacles  where  it  could 
ferment.  All  vinegars  when  making 
must  have  heat  and  be  kept  warm  with 
the  sun  if  not  otherwise.  The  water- 
melon juice  cleared  itself,  and  when  fer- 
mentation was  complete  the  acid  was  as 
clear  and  colorless  as  water.  It  would 
"  make  "  if  added  to  the  cider  vinegar, 
and  next  time  will  be  used  with  it.  The 
two  acids  combine  well  in  flavor.  I 
used  the  watermelon  vinegar  in  making 
pickles  and  found  it  as  successful  as  cider 
vinegar. 

Fermentation  may  be  started  with  yeast 
if  one  wants  to  make  a  vinegar  without 
the  flavor  of  the  cider  vinegar,  and  more 
quickly  than  by  waiting  for  it  to  come  as 


80      THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

a  natural  result  of  conditions.  Almost 
any  liquid  will  turn  to  vinegar  if  left  to 
sour  and  work  itself  clear.  Molasses  will 
become  so  acid  that  it  must  be  diluted 
very  much  to  use  at  all.  I  once  made 
some  pickles  by  pouring  molasses  over 
sliced  green  tomatoes — it  was  a  recipe  in 
a  cook-book — and  the  resulting  pickles 
were  so  sour  that  the  acid  made  ordinary 
vinegar  seem  sweet.  They  could  not  be 
eaten,  but  might  have  been  with  diluted 
acid,  perhaps. 

Vinegars  may  be  made  from  the  juices 
of  oranges,  peaches,  and  other  fruits.  The 
recipes  for  these  call  for  yeast-cake  ac- 
cording to  amount  of  liquid.  Half  a 
cake  will  ferment  a  gallon,  or  nature 
will  do  the  same.  There  is  no  more  real 
need  for  a  fermentative  agent  than  with 
watermelon.  I  have  never  made  any  of 
these  fruit  vinegars  but  have  made  many 
of  the  herb  vinegars,  and  plan  to  keep 
mint  and  tarragon  vinegar  always  on 


VINEGARS.    EGGS  81 

hand.  With  onions  at  the  present  price 
onion  vinegar  will  be  added  to  my  supply 
of  fancy  vinegars.  They  may  be  made  in 
quart  quantities. 

EGGS 

There  is  an  economy  in  putting  down 
eggs  for  winter  provided  you  can  get  ab- 
solutely fresh  and  infertile  eggs.  It  will 
not  pay  to  lay  the  eggs  down  unless  you 
can  be  sure  they  are  fresh.  One  of  the 
leading  authorities  on  farm  matters  has 
advised  every  one  who  can  do  so  to  put 
down  eggs  whenever  they  can  be  bought 
at  less  than  forty  cents  a  dozen,  as  the 
probability  is  that  the  price  will  rise  in 
the  future  to  much  more  than  that.  The 
price  is  lowest  in  spring  when  eggs  are 
most  abundant,  but  they  are  more  liable 
then  to  be  fertile  and  thus  will  not  keep 
well. 

There  are  several  methods  of  preserv- 
ing eggs,  but  the  two  tested  by  the 


82       THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

Department  of  Agriculture  and  recom- 
mended by  the  authorities  of  the  Depart- 
ment are  in  water-glass  and  by  lime. 
The  country  way  for  years  was  to  put 
the  eggs  in  a  half-barrel  or  big  lard- 
firkin.  The  great  disadvantage  of  this  is 
that  the  last  eggs  put  down  are  the  first 
to  be  eaten,  unless  one  does  as  an  old 
friend  of  mine  did.  When  her  firkin 
was  full  she  put  a  tight  lid  on  it  and  re- 
versed it,  opened  it  at  the  bottom  and 
thus  used  the  first  laid  down  before  the 
late.  Better  than  that  is  to  have  smaller 
receptacles,  which  may  be  opened  in 
order  of  age,  beginning  with  the  oldest. 
Working  from  the  oldest  to  the  last  put 
down  you  will  never  get  any  that  are 
very  old. 

Water-glass  is  a  sodium  silicate  and  is 
dissolved  in  water.  The  proper  propor- 
tions are  given  with  the  material.  The 
water  has  a  somewhat  slippery  feeling. 
When  the  eggs  are  to  be  used,  they  are 


VINEGARS.    EGGS  83 

removed  from  the  liquid  and  rinsed  in 
clean,  cold  water,  but  must  not  wait 
long  before  being  used.  The  informa- 
tion given  by  the  Department  of  Agri- 
culture says  eggs  thus  preserved  may  be 
used  for  soft-boiling  or  poaching  up  to 
November.  To  cook  an  egg  in  the  shell 
first  prick  a  tiny  hole  in  the  large  end 
of  the  shell  with  a  needle  to  keep  it 
from  cracking.  They  are  satisfactory  for 
frying  until  December  and  after  that 
time  until  March  they  may  be  used  for 
omelets,  custards,  and  cake  cooking. 

As  the  eggs  become  older,  the  whites  be- 
come thinner  and  it  is  harder  to  separate 
yellow  from  white.  It  becomes  difficult 
to  beat  the  eggs.  As  the  eggs  age,  they 
do  not  look  as  inviting  and  sometimes, 
even  when  not  bad,  there  is  a  tinge  of 
pink  in  the  white,  which  is  said  to  be 
due  to  a  small  supply  of  iron  in  the 
sodium  silicate  and  does  not  harm  the 
egg  for  cooking.  Some  of  these  changes 


84:      THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

in  the  eggs  will  be  avoided  by  so  placing 
them  in  separate  receptacles  that  they  do 
not  get  so  old  before  using.  Sixteen 
average-sized  eggs  may  be  packed  with 
the  water-glass  in  a  half-gallon  crock. 
Seal  the  jar  or  crock  when  full.  The 
water-glass  may  be  used  again. 

The  most  enthusiastic  advocate  of  pre- 
serving eggs  I  ever  met  was  a  personal 
friend  who  had  put  eggs  down  in  lime- 
water  for  forty  years  when  she  told  me 
about  that  method.  She  did  not  like 
the  water -glass  method,  and  perhaps  was 
slightly  prejudiced  against  it,  as  she  got 
better  results  with  the  lime-water.  She 
said  she  had  never  had  a  bad  egg  with 
the  lime  process,  but  she  was  fortunate  in 
having  hens  and  thus  being  assured  of 
perfectly  fresh  material  to  preserve.  Forty 
years'  experience  and  no  poor  eggs  is  a 
good  recommendation.  The  lime-water 
is  a  strong  solution,  three  pounds  of  un- 
slaked lime  to  five  gallons  of  water  which 


VINEGARS.    EGGS  85 

has  been  boiled  and  allowed  to  stand 
until  cool.  The  mixture  must  stand 
until  the  lime  settles  and  the  liquid  is 
clear.  The  eggs  are  to  be  packed  as  with 
water-glass,  having  at  least  two  inches  of 
water  above  the  eggs.  Rinse  as  with  the 
other  preparation.  These  eggs  retain 
their  original  appearance  on  breaking 
somewhat  longer  than  the  eggs  from 
water-glass.  The  lime-water  is  somewhat 
the  cheaper  solution,  but  the  Department 
of  Agriculture  endorses  the  water-glass 
process  the  more  highly. 

Eggs  are  so  important  a  part  of  the 
family  diet  that  it  is  well  worth  your 
time  and  care  to  have  as  many  as  you 
can.  My  grocer  said,  "  The  price  of  eggs 
in  winter  does  not  trouble  me.  In  the 
spring  I  buy  thirty  dozen  where  I  know 
they  are  good,  put  them  down,  and  they 
last  us  until  they  come  again."  That  is 
from  a  man  who  can  always  get  his  foods 
at  cost  price,  and  what  is  a  good  plan  for 


86       THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

him  is  equally  good  for  others.  Eggs 
must  always  be  put  down  in  earthenware 
or  glass.  I  know  I  spoke  of  the  firkin 
and  have  seen  it  used  a  great  deal  in  the 
country,  but  it  is  like  other  exceptions  to 
rules,  and  when  you  begin  you  do  better 
to  follow  the  rule  exactly. 

Buy  no  eggs  for  preserving  which  are 
over  four  days  old.  The  fresher  they 
are,  the  better  for  keeping. 

Even  when  using  fresh  eggs,  break 
each  egg  separately,  and  then  only  one 
will  be  lost.  I  once  spoiled  eight  by 
breaking  the  ninth  into  them  when  it 
was  much  too  old  to  be  pleasant.  Yolks 
separated  from  whites  may  be  kept  fresh 
if  covered,  without  blending,  with  cold 
water.  Cover  the  whites  with  a  lid  to 
keep  from  drying.  If  beaten  eggs  be- 
come hard,  soften  them  with  milk. 

If  eggs  are  scarce  and  you  want  to 
make  a  cake  that  calls  for  more  than  one 
egg,  add  the  butter  last  and  have  it 


VINEGARS.    EGGS.  87 

melted  when  added.  Then  one  egg  will 
serve  for  two  cakes.  Beat  yolk  and  white 
separately  and  add  last  of  all  but  the 
butter.  Eggs  may  be  made  to  do  double 
duty  by  beating  up  with  a  tablespoonful 
of  water  to  an  egg.  If  more  than  three 
eggs  are  called  for,  omit  one  and  add  a 
spoonful  of  corn-starch.  Beat  it  in  with 
the  eggs  or  the  mixture  may  fall.  It 
may  be  substituted  in  scrambled  eggs  or 
an  omelet. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  GREATEST  ECONOMY 
YOURSELF 


CHAPTER  VI 
THE  GEEATEST  ECONOMY  :  YOUKSELF 

THERE  is  one  possession  which  the 
woman  who  makes  the  greatest  effort  to 
be  thrifty  often  wastes  with  reckless 
prodigality,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  it  is 
so  valuable  it  cannot  be  replaced  by  any- 
thing else  ;  money  cannot  buy  it,  and 
once  lost  one  seldom  can  get  it  again. 
Of  all  the  wastes  about  the  household 
this  is  the  one  irreparable,  and  as  the 
housewife  is  wasting  it  she  seems  to 
think  she  is  doing  something  very  com- 
mendable. She  will  save  her  pennies  and 
waste  her  life  by  overwork  and  lack  of 
sleep,  and  in  the  end  she  spends  all  she 
has  tried  to  accumulate,  in  the  vain  effort 
to  be  well  again. 

Of  all  the  good  gifts  the  fairies  bestow 
91 


92       THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

upon  a  child  at  birth,  the  first  and  best  is 
good  health  ;  if  that  does  not  come  by 
birth,  the  next  best  for  the  child  is  a 
mother  wise  enough  to  nurture  him  so 
needfully  that  health  grows  within  him 
as  he  sleeps,  eats,  and,  later,  works. 
Blessed  is  the  household  where  the  mother 
puts  good  health  above  all  things  except 
moral  strength.  In  that  household  the 
mother  does  not  throw  away  her  strength 
and  time  doing  work  that  can  be  elimi- 
nated, but  she  serves  cleanliness  with 
reason. 

However  hard  one  works  and  however 
steadily,  she  never  can  have  an  absolutely 
clean  house.  Nature  forbids  it.  All  out- 
of-doors  is  dirt,  yet  we  take  to  out-of-doors 
and  we  thrive.  Instead  of  working  so 
hard  to  drive  out  the  dust  why  not  take 
more  of  out-of-doors  into  the  house? 
That  is  thrift.  It  may  fade  the  carpet, 
and  the  life-giving  sunshine  generally 
does  fade  it  and  the  paper  and  other 


GREATEST  ECONOMY:  YOURSELF  93 

things,  but  these  can  be  renewed  if  the 
members  of  the  family  are  well,  for  they 
will  work  with  so  much  more  enthusiasm 
that  their  incomes  will  increase;  more- 
over, there  is  no  home  that  is  so  inviting 
and  homelike  as  one  that  is  not  too  new 
and  speckless.  Better  is  a  home  where 
faded  walls  and  floor  are,  with  a  well, 
happy  mother,  than  an  immaculate,  dark- 
ened home  with  an  irritable,  nervous 
mother  presiding  over  it.  In  homes 
where  the  income  is  small,  only  one  per- 
son to  see  to  everything,  there  is  always 
occasion  to  choose  which  you  shall  have, 
more  show,  more  work,  less  happiness,  or 
health  and  content  with  plain  living. 
As  a  matter  of  dollars  and  cents,  regard- 
less of  the  spirit  of  the  home — and  the 
happiest  homes  are  not  the  most  scrubbed 
— it  pays  better  to  work  less. 

A  woman  will  tell  you,  "  I  cleaned  all 
my  up-stairs  to-day,  took  up  the  carpet, 
washed  the  floor,  etc.,"  as  if  she  had  done 


94:      THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

a  truly  virtuous  deed,  when  what  she 
really  did  was  to  strain  her  back,  neglect 
her  food,  work  all  day  keyed  at  the  high- 
est tension,  and  go  to  bed  at  night  with 
every  nerve  strained  to  the  utmost,  an 
aching  head  and  back,  and  the  conscious- 
ness that  her  weariness  and  aches  have 
made  her  so  snappy  that  the  children 
have  stayed  as  far  from  her  as  they  could, 
and  her  husband  has  "  decided  to  do 
some  extra  work  at  the  office."  Wearing 
one's  self  out  like  that  and  being  cross 
is  a  sin,  and  if  a  woman  herself  must 
clean  her  house  at  such  a  cost  she  will  be 
much  wiser  to  let  the  extra  work  be  un- 
done. Probably  no  one  else  ever  would 
know  whether  or  not  she  had  done  all 
the  cleaning,  or  care.  Just  why  houses 
should  become  so  remarkably  dirty  twice 
a  year  when  they  apparently  have  been 
kept  clean  all  through  the  months  be- 
tween is  one  of  the  puzzles  of  a  thought- 
ful mind. 


GREATEST  ECONOMY :  YOURSELF  95 

When  this  country  was  first  settled  and 
only  one  fire  was  kept  in  most  houses, 
and  that  in  the  kitchen,  and  all  winter 
the  family  hibernated  and  dirt  accumu- 
lated because  it  was  too  cold  to  clean  the 
rooms  unlived  in,  there  was  reason  for  a 
yearly  digging-out ;  but  now  it  is  the  cus- 
tom to  occupy  all  the  house,  and  all  is 
kept  swept  and  garnished  from  January 
first  to  the  following  December  thirty- 
first  at  midnight  it  should  be  possible  to 
keep  it  livable  without  any  yearly  up- 
heaval. There  is  enough  to  be  done  each 
day  not  to  add  any  needless  labor  to  the 
amount. 

If  you,  my  dear  sister-worker,  find 
yourself  getting  so  tired  each  day  that 
you  "  cannot  think,"  try  this  way  of  cul- 
tivating thrift.  Take  time  to  consider 
with  yourself  how  not  to  waste  your  life. 
It  is  the  best  thing  you  have.  Did  you 
ever  notice  how  many  husbands  have 
young  wives  spending  the  money  saved 


96       THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

by  the  work  of  the  first  wives,  who  die  and 
leave  it  for  their  successors  to  spend? 
Why  not  spend  it  yourself?  Reflect  on 
that  topic  deeply  and  heartfully,  and  then 
decide  first  that  you  will  not  join  the 
number  of  those  thus  making  a  place  for 
some  superfluous  woman.  That  decision 
being  made  so  that  it  cannot  be  shaken, 
reflect  thoughtfully  on  what  you  can  do 
to  save  yourself,  which  is  to  make  yourself 
well  and  keep  yourself  well. 

You  know  just  about  what  you  can  do 
before  you  become  conscious  of  weariness. 
You  should  stop  a  little  the  other  side 
of  that.  If  you  can  work  but  an  hour 
and  feel  right,  work  that  at  your  best  and 
stop. 

If  you  cannot  afford  to  hire  a  helper — 
really  cannot  afford  it  by  going  without 
something  else — then  there  remains  for 
you  only  to  cut  down  the  work  and  have 
the  members  of  your  family  help  you. 
Probably  you  are  the  kind  who  hangs  up 


GREATEST  ECONOMY :  YOURSELF   97 

everything  the  other  members  of  the  fam- 
ily drop,  who  puts  away  or  packs  every- 
thing for  them,  and  who  makes  of  herself 
an  unthanked  servant  for  the  household. 
Having  resolved  to  be  just  to  yourself,  you 
must  change  this  condition,  so  talk  over 
the  situation  with  your  family  and  re- 
quest their  cooperation  in  making  life 
easier  for  you.  Very  likely  they  will  be 
greatly  surprised  to  know  that  you  have 
any  lacks  in  that  respect.  If  you  have 
brought  them  up  so  selfishly  that  they 
will  not  help  for  the  asking,  then  make 
a  demand  that  they  do  at  least  what  be- 
longs to  them  to  do,  the  work  they  make, 
and  if  they  do  not  heed  your  words,  leave 
all  their  proper  work  undone. 

Let  their  clothes  lie  where  they  were 
dropped,  also  their  tennis-rackets,  books, 
etc.  Don't  give  way  to  the  weakness  of 
saying,  "  I  can't  stand  seeing  them 
around."  If  you  can't,  just  go  somewhere 
else  and  forget  about  them.  You  may  as 


98       THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

well  go  while  you  are  able  to  do  it  as  to 
wait  until  you  are  carried  feet  first.  If 
you  were  sick  abed  you  would  have  to 
let  them  lie,  so  play  that  you  are  too  ill 
to  attend  to  them.  It  should  come  easy 
to  you  to  do  that. 

The  woman  who  is  always  tired  is  a 
woman  who  is  not  well,  and  she  belongs 
in  bed  quite  as  much  as  the  woman  who 
is  there.  Rest  will  do  her  more  good 
than  any  medicine  and  help  more  to  keep 
her  well,  and  the  housemother  should 
rest  some  part  of  every  day  as  soon  as  she 
is  conscious  of  weariness ;  even  fifteen 
minutes'  relaxation  will  do  her  good,  and 
after  it  she  will  go  on  with  renewed  en- 
ergy. She  can  get  this  rest  if  she  will. 
It  is  always  possible  to  do  the  thing  one 
should  do,  and  to  be  pleasant  is  the  first 
duty  of  a  woman  with  husband  and 
child. 

As  soon  as  you  feel  that  you  have  more 
to  do  than  you  can  ever  get  done,  and 


GREATEST  ECONOMY :  YOURSELF  99 

wherever  you  turn  you  see  nothing  but 
dust  and  dirt,  it  is  time  for  you  to  drop 
everything  for  half  an  hour.  Go  out- 
doors and  breathe  fresh  air  and  see  how 
the  sky  looks.  There  is  no  more  dirt 
than  when  you  did  not  notice  it  at  all. 
You  see  it  because  your  nerves  are  mag- 
nifying everything.  Remember,  "  As 
thy  days,  so  shall  thy  strength  be,"  and 
you  can  do  all  that  belongs  to  you 
to  do  without  the  wear  that  makes  you 
cross.  You  have  no  more  before  you  that 
absolutely  must  be  done  than  you  can  do 
well.  Separate  the  things  you  know 
must  be  done  from  those  that  can  be  left, 
and  be  guided  in  your  decision  by  the 
state  of  your  mind  and  body,  and  pay  no 
heed  to  the  things  you  would  do  because 
your  neighbors  do  and  think  you  should 
do.  Your  neighbors  do  not  have  your 
life  to  live ;  live  it  yourself  as  seems  good 
to  you.  Tasks  are  the  things  you  do  to 
satisfy  your  neighbors'  notions.  Do  no 


100     THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

more  of  them.  They  bring  nervous  pros- 
tration. 

"  Do  the  duty  that  lies  nearest,"  but  be 
sure  it  is  a  duty.  You  can  recognize  a 
duty  because  it  is  something  that  makes 
you  and  your  family  physically  well,  that 
develops  them  spiritually  and  morally, 
and  does  not  take  from  you  more  than 
you  are  able  to  give.  Your  first  duty  is 
to  make  yourself  so  lovely  that  your  fam- 
ily want  to  be  with  you.  Nothing  is 
worth  while  to  you  or  them  that  does 
not  help  you  to  be  dear  to  them.  Test 
what  you  lay  out  for  your  work  by  its  re- 
lation to  this  great  demand,  and  reject  it 
if  it  does  not  meet  the  test. 

Very  many  seem-to- be-important  tasks 
will  fade  into  nothingness  if  judged  by 
this  test.  You  think  of  pies,  doughnuts, 
cakes,  or  what  else  to  be  made,  but  are 
those  really  necessary  to  body  or  soul  ? 
They  take  much  time  and  they  are  de- 
licious, but  if  you  are  not  strong,  cannot 


GREATEST  ECONOMY:  YOURSELF   iOl 

9 

your  family  be  well  nourished  and  whole- 
somely fed  without  them?  You  know 
they  can.  The  actual  requirements  of 
the  body  to  keep  it  in  perfect  physical 
trim  are  very  few.  A  simple  dietary  does 
more  to  make  and  keep  it  perfect  than  all 
the  products  of  the  cook  in  sweets  and 
desserts.  All  forms  of  thrift  are  against 
much  cookery  of  that  kind,  thrift  of  time, 
money,  strength,  health,  and  good  spirits. 
Eggs,  shortening,  flour,  milk,  all  are  so 
expensive  that  it  is  not  thrift  to  put  much 
of  them  into  the  non-essentials  of  diet. 
While  you  deny  your  appetite  these 
pleasing  gratifications  you  can  content 
yourself  and  family  by  reminding  them 
of  the  gains  in  health,  and  in  money. 
Very  few  women  ever  stop  to  reckon  the 
cost  of  cakes  or  any  such  foods.  They 
know  what  eggs  and  meat  cost  because 
they  pay  for  them  in  a  lump  sum,  but  they 
cannot  tell  you  what  a  cake  costs  until 
they  count  it  up.  With  lard  at  twenty- 


ib2     TSfttFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

five  cents  a  pound,  eggs  at  fifty  cents  or 
more  a  dozen,  sugar  nine  cents  or  more  a 
pound,  and  milk  and  flour  equally  high, 
it  is  not  hard  to  see  that  cake  is  as  ex- 
pensive as  needless.  Women  can  lessen 
the  indirect  expenses  of  the  family  in 
many  ways,  beginning  with  what  they 
need  not  spend  on  doctors  and  medicine. 
If  the  housewife  will  cut  out  from  her 
housework  the  non-essentials,  she  will  go 
through  her  days  much  more  healthfully 
and  comfortably.  Weariness  creates  poi- 
sons in  the  blood  that  after  a  while  create 
the  so-called  diseases.  Why  not  avoid 
the  illness  by  leaving  undone  the  acts 
that  produce  it?  You  will  have  to  leave 
them  undone  after  the  illness ;  it  is  as 
easy  to  foresee  the  evil  and  escape  it. 
One  severe  sickness  will  use  up  in  a 
month  the  savings  of  a  year  and  indirectly 
much  more  in  what  one's  time  is  worth, 
and  while  the  wages  of  the  housewife's 
substitute  are  being  paid  as  well  as  her 


GREATEST  ECONOMY:  YOURSELF   103 

board  and  breakages  the  appreciation  of 
the  regular  worker's  duties  and  value 
will  be  increasing. 

"How  shall  I  save  health?"  do  you 
ask?  "How  shall  I  plan  my  days  to 
eliminate  the  needless?  "  That  is  some- 
thing no  one  can  tell  another,  for  the 
needs  of  families  are  different,  but  a  gen- 
eral rule  may  be  given.  Simplify  every 
department  of  life.  With  foods,  cook 
those  which  are  most  easily  prepared  and 
use  the  fireless,  since  that  is  the  easiest 
and  least  time-devouring  of  all  cooking. 
That  saves  labor,  time  and  money  beside 
strength,  all  of  which  you  need  to  con- 
serve. Eat  many  uncooked  articles  for 
desserts ;  figs,  raisins,  dates,  prunes,  and 
other  fruits  cost  less  than  cakes  and  pod- 
dings  and  keep  the  body  in  good  tone. 
These  are  all  good  with  the  morning 
cereal.  They  supply  also  the  sugar  that 
is  necessary  for  perfect  nutrition. 

Plan  to  have  a  meat  or  its  substitute,  a 


104    THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

starch,  and  a  fat  at  each  dinner.  The 
body  has  to  be  fed  with  these  to  meet  its 
needs.  As  most  meals  are  provided  for 
individuals  of  different  ages  and  physical 
conditions,  a  compromise  has  to  be  ar- 
ranged, varied  as  the  mother  knows  to  be 
best. 

Meat  substitutes  are  fish,  fowl,  cheese, 
nuts,  legumes,  milk  and  eggs.  Potatoes 
and  cereals  furnish  starches.  Fats  are 
found  to  some  extent  in  most  foods  but 
the  fats  for  the  table  are  butter  and  cream, 
with  salad  oils,  and  children  should  be 
encouraged  to  eat  much  of  them.  Every 
family  would  be  the  healthier  for  a  green 
salad  daily  which  should  be  served  with- 
out mayonnaise.  There  is  no  thrift  in 
providing  that  dressing,  which  is  as  un- 
wholesome as  expensive.  Many  persons 
find  peanut  and  cottonseed  oil  as  pleasant 
as  olive  for  salads  and  the  cost  is  a  third 
less.  It  is  said  that  no  case  of  appen- 
dicitis has  ever  developed  among  persons 


GREATEST  ECONOMY:  YOURSELF  105 

who  eat  oil  freely.  Children,  unless  they 
have  heard  their  elders  say  they  never 
could  take  oil,  will  eat  vegetables  dressed 
with  oil  and  lemon  juice  and  ask  for 
more.  There  are  so  few  fats  palatable  to 
children  that  the  salad  habit  should  be 
encouraged.  Also,  a  salad  is  a  dish  easy 
to  prepare  for  the  table. 

Economize  on  the  daily  duties  by  hav- 
ing those  common  to  every  day  follow  a 
regular  routine.  The  more  nearly  auto- 
matic they  become,  the  less  they  take  out 
of  you,  while  saving  the  wear  of  thinking, 
"What  shall  I  do  next?"  Insist  that 
each  member  of  the  family  turn  back  his 
bed  before  leaving  his  room,  and  leave 
the  window  open.  Also,  have  him  take 
care  of  all  his  belongings.  To  pick  up  a 
paper  or  a  match  is  not  much  effort,  but 
it  is  as  much  for  you  as  for  him,  and  the 
aggregation  of  picking  up  for  every  one 
is  an  appreciable  tax  upon  one.  Perhaps 
the  weaker  sex  would  not  be  the  weaker 


106     THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

if  she  did  not  bend  her  back  so  much 
picking  up  what  the  stronger  leaves  on 
the  floor.  There  will  be  more  life  for 
you  to  put  into  better  things  when  you 
have  taught  your  family  to  look  after 
their  own  belongings.  You  should  have 
begun  the  lessons  when  they  were  little. 
Each  year  of  practice  makes  the  good 
habit  become  more  like  instinct. 


CHAPTER  VII 
LABOR-SAVING 


CHAPTER  VII 
LABOK-SAYING 

BEGIN  on  Sunday  to  prepare  for  the 
week's  work  so  that  you  shall  finish  each 
day  of  it  with  the  joy  of  doing,  not  with 
the  weariness  that  grows  greater  and 
heavier  day  by  day.  Take  your  day  of 
rest  as  does  the  man  who  insists  on  an 
eight-hour  day.  You  need  it  as  much  as 
your  men  do.  Plan  your  day's  work  and 
meals  to  be  as  light  as  you  can  possibly 
make  them.  Have  your  dinner  nearly 
ready  on  Saturday.  It  won't  hurt  your 
men  to  eat  cold  meat  once  a  week.  Study 
how  to  get  the  hours  of  rest  that  will  do 
you  good  ;  let  it  be  your  day  and  let 
your  family  make  it  good  for  you.  Prob- 
ably they  will  enjoy  the  change  as  much 
as  you  will,  and  you  will  feel  and  look 

so  much  the  younger. 
109 


110     THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

Take  Monday  to  put  the  house  in  order 
after  Sunday,  to  get  food  ready  for  wash- 
day ;  Tuesday,  for  putting  clothes  in  soak 
and  getting  them  ready  thus  to  be  treated. 
Monday  is  the  day  to  take  out  the  stains, 
to  mend  rents  that  will  be  enlarged  by 
going  through  the  wash,  and  to  get  the 
week  well  under  way.  It  saves  labor  to 
soak  the  clothes  with  a  good  powder  that 
you  can  make  yourself,  or  to  use  a  spoon- 
ful of  kerosene  to  the  gallon  of  water. 
The  odor  of  kerosene  will  be  lost  when 
the  clothes  go  through  the  wash.  A 
washing-machine  is  an  economy  in  the 
average  household  because  it  makes  very 
hard  labor  become  easy  and  does  the 
same  work  in  half  the  time.  Add  a  good 
wringer,  and  wash-day  is  no  more  to  be 
dreaded  than  any  other  day.  Laundry 
work  is  the  hardest  and  most  exacting 
of  the  household,  and  a  woman  should 
have  every  appliance  that  will  make 
it  easier,  if  to  have  them  she  leaves 


LABOR-SAVING  111 

her  bedroom  with  only  a  bed,  table,  and 
chair. 

When  you  put  the  clothes  on  the  line 
hang  all  things  of  the  same  kind  to- 
gether, all  sheets,  slips,  etc.,  side  by  side. 
Hang  them  to  swing  smoothly,  and  fold 
as  taken  from  the  line.  Do  not  iron. 
Sun-dried  sheets  folded  while  the  sun  is 
on  them  are  so  sweet  that  ironing  is  no 
improvement.  Moreover,  there  is  health 
in  such  clothing.  Fold  ordinary  towels 
and  do  not  iron  them.  For  underwear, 
woven  garments,  or  those  made  of  cr£pe 
or  seersucker  if  you  want  heavier  ma- 
terial, will  need  no  ironing,  just  pulling 
into  smoothness  and  shape.  They  are 
very  pretty  with  a  little  needlework  for 
trimming,  which  may  be  done  in  odd 
minutes.  By  a  little  thought  you  can 
make  your  ironing  only  a  small  amount 
of  work,  less  than  the  washing. 

If  you  do  your  own  work,  all  that  you 
can  leave  undone  without  lessening  the 


112     THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

comfort  or  in  any  degree  injuring  the 
health  of  your  family  will  keep  you 
fresher  and  happier.  If  you  hire  your 
laundry  done,  the  less  ironing,  the  less 
the  cost  for  the  washing,  and  the  more 
you  will  have  for  the  finer  things  of  the 
mind  or  for  charity.  To-day  from  all 
over  the  world  comes  the  cry  for  help, 
and  to  answer  it  one  must  practise  thrift 
as  never  before. 

Try  to  "have  as  few  handlings  of  the 
clothes  as  you  can.  You  can  sort  the 
not-to-be-ironed  as  you  take  from  the 
line.  As  you  iron  the  others,  place 
systematically  on  the  drier.  Have  those 
to  be  mended  separated  from  the  others 
on  the  drier  and  so  on.  Mend  when 
taken  from  the  drier,  and  do  not  put 
anything  away  without  buttons  on  and 
rents  repaired.  Let  the  sewing-machine 
help  with  the  mending.  Do  not  waste 
time  sewing  by  hand  when  it  can  be 
more  effectively  done  by  machine. 


LABOR-SAVING  113 

If  you  have  a  small  family,  you  may 
save  time  and  strength  by  doing  your 
dishes  all  at  one  time.  Scrape  them, 
pile  in  an  orderly  manner,  pour  hot 
water  over  them,  and  let  them  stand  in 
the  pan  until  the  most  convenient  hour 
of  your  day  for  doing  them.  This  may 
be  in  the  pauses  of  getting  dinner  at 
night.  There  is  a  considerable  saving 
of  time,  and  the  dishes  by  their  soaking 
are  about  half-washed  when  one  begins 
on  them. 

It  will  be  a  great  help  in  keeping 
rooms  clean  to  have  on  each  floor  a  duster, 
broom,  and  brush.  By  removing  dust 
and  dirt  as  it  comes  the  weekly  cleaning 
may  be  turned  into  a  fortnightly  work, 
and  made  easier  by  taking  half  of  the 
rooms  each  week.  With  your  work,  as 
with  your  money,  it  is  the  small  savings 
and  expenditures  that  count  for  profit  or 
loss.  Use  your  head  to  devise  methods 
of  saving  motions  and  labor.  Keeping 


114     THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

things    convenient    is    a   great   gain    in 
health. 

In  your  kitchen  and  pantry  have  your 
cooking  articles  and  dishes  so  arranged 
that  you  can  get  what  you  want  without 
moving  anything  else,  and  all  within  easy 
reach.  That  is  a  decided  advantage  in 
working  rapidly,  and  is  free  from  the 
irritating  influence  that  accompanies 
keeping  dishes,  covers,  and  so  on,  piled 
one  on  another. 


CHAPTER  VIII 
BREAD  AND  CAKE 


CHAPTER  VIII 

BREAD  AND  CAKE 

BREAD,  being  the  commonest  and  most 
important  article  of  food,  must  form  a 
large  part  of  the  cost  of  the  table.  In  no 
other  thing  has  the  standard  of  the 
housewife  changed  so  greatly  as  in  rela- 
tion to  bread-making.  One  of  the 
memories  from  my  childhood  in  New 
England  is  hearing  the  discussion  of  a 
woman  new  to  the  neighborhood,  and 
what  I  remember  is  this,  spoken  in 
pitying  accents :  "  Yes,  poor  thing,  she 
does  the  best  she  can,  but  she  hasn't  any 
faculty.  Why,  she  buys  her  bread!" 
That  to  the  generation  earlier  was  a  sure 
indication  of  a  poor  or  lazy  housewife. 
Now  it  is  the  exceptional  housekeeper 

who  makes  her  own  bread,  and  perhaps 
117 


118     THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

that  fact  has  had  its  share  in  raising  the 
cost  of  living. 

Whether  it  were  more  profitable  to 
make  my  bread,  cake,  and  other  flour 
products  or  to  buy  them,  no  one  was  able 
to  tell  me  when  I  began  to  keep  house, 
so  I  determined  to  find  out  for  myself, 
and  I  kept  account  of  all  that  was  baked 
from  a  bag  of  flour,  added  to  that  the 
cost  of  other  material  and  of  fuel.  As 
gas  has  always  been  my  fuel  and  I  can 
read  my  meter  I  could  tell  how  much 
gas  was  burned  for  each  baking  or  steam- 
ing. I  found  a  gain  of  fifty  per  cent., 
and  if  there  were  no  gain  where  would 
the  baker  get  his  profit?  Though  he 
buys  for  less  and  has  increased  produc- 
tion, he  must  pay  other  expenses  lacking 
to  the  housewife,  so  it  is  fair  to  credit 
him  with  a  cost  no  heavier  than  that  of 
the  home-maker,  and  his  profit  she  saves 
when  she  does  the  work.  No  housewife 
at  the  head  of  a  large  family  can  afford 


BREAD  AND  CAKE  119 

to  buy  her  bread  if  she  desires  to  be 
thrifty  in  the  least.  The  higher  the  price 
of  flour  and  other  material,  the  more  need 
of  her  being  the  bread-maker. 

The  following  statement  may  help  you 
to  see  that  making  your  bread  is  cheaper 
than  buying  it,  outside  of  the  fact  that 
home-made  bread  has  more  body  to  it 
than  baker's  bread,  and  "  goes  farther." 
In  a  barrel  of  flour  there  will  be  flour 
enough  for  330  loaves  of  bread.  Suppose 
you  pay  $15  for  the  flour.  Your  loaves 
at  ten  cents  each,  and  they  are  quite  as 
likely  to  be  more,  will  cost  $33,  and  you 
will  see  at  once  that  the  shortening  and 
baking  will  not  cost  you  any  such  sum  as 
the  difference  between  cost  of  the  barrel 
of  flour  and  cost  of  loaves  of  bread  bought 
from  the  baker.  A  light,  delicious  loaf 
of  home-made  bread  will  serve  more  than 
baker's  bread  because  it  has  more  sub- 
stance to  it.  No  woman  with  a  family 
of  four  persons  is  thrifty  if  she  buys 


120     THEIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

bread  unless  she  is  frail  and  overbur- 
dened with  work. 

In  my  family  of  three  persons  I  have 
found  it  profitable  to  make  my  cakes, 
pies,  breads,  and  puddings,  planning  to 
bake  when  there  is  something  else  to 
cook  at  the  same  time.  With  gas  for 
fuel,  it  is  wasteful  to  run  the  oven  for 
only  one  article.  It  takes  as  much  gas 
to  bake  a  roast  as  to  bake  a  roast,  a  loaf, 
potatoes,  and  one  other  thing,  which  are 
all  a  gas  oven  will  hold. 

Good  bread,  even  the  much-vilified 
fine  white  bread,  has  considerable  food 
value.  An  expert  on  nutrition  (Brews- 
ter)  says  a  slice  of  it  toasted  and  buttered 
has  as  much  nutriment  as  an  egg. 

"  As  for  the  vexed  question  of  Graham 
and  entire-wheat  bread  vs.  white,  the 
difference  is  really  not  nearly  so  great 
as  some  persons  would  have  us  believe. 
In  fuel  value,  the  white  has  a  slight  ad- 
vantage, since  the  darker  forms  are  com- 


BREAD  AND  CAKE  121 

monly  made  up  with  somewhat  more 
water.  The  protein  of  the  darker  sorts 
amounts,  on  the  average,  to  only  about 
two  per  cent,  more,  fifty  bites  of  the  one 
matching  forty-nine  of  the  other.  The 
white  sorts  are  for  most  persons  dis- 
tinctly more  digestible.  In  the  bone- 
building  minerals  the  difference  is  some- 
what greater.  Even  here  it  amounts,  in 
general,  to  only  about  two  parts  in  ten. 
Moreover,  some  white  flour  contains  more 
protein  and  more  phosphates  than  some 
dark,  the  low-grade  flours  having  com- 
monly the  most.  The  striking  difference 
between  white  and  dark  flours  lies  in 
their  content  of  woody  fibre,  which  may 
be  twenty  times  as  great  in  certain  brands 
of  Graham  as  is  the  super-refined  white. 
This  fibre  tends  to  make  the  bread  indi- 
gestible. On  the  other  hand,  there  is 
probably  nothing  else  so  good  for  keep- 
ing the  bowels  properly  at  work." 

Thus  does  Brewster  dispose  of  a  favor- 


122     THKIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

ite  popular  notion.  Recent  investiga- 
tions among  English  workingmen  show 
that  among  well-nourished  men  of  that 
class,  bread  provides  nearly  two-thirds  of 
the  total  energy  value  of  the  ration.  This 
proves  that  bread  is  worthy  of  its  high 
place  in  the  dietary,  and  the  more  active 
the  individual,  the  better  for  him  is  bread. 
"  The  mainstay  of  a  child's  diet  should 
be  bread."  He  is  always  working,  and 
the  bread  and  butter  give  him  what  he 
needs  in  the  best  form.  There  is  good 
basis  for  the  Continental  breakfast  of 
bread  and  coffee  or  chocolate,  and  work- 
ers of  the  offices  and  stores  who  have  tried 
for  breakfast  two  slices  of  buttered  toast, 
with  fruit  cooked  or  raw,  will  rarely  re- 
turn to  the  heavier  meal,  which  makes 
the  mind  heavier  as  well. 

Do  not  have  always  the  same  kind  of 
bread.  Variety  in  this  is  as  welcome  as 
in  other  things  and  as  readily  found. 
You  may  have  bran,  rice,  whole  wheat, 


BREAD  AND  CAKE  123 

brown  bread,  as  part  of  your  bread  ration 
and  it  will  pay  you  to  make  it  yourself. 
Then  for  breads  that  are  almost  a  meal 
in  themselves  offer  nut,  date,  and  raisin 
bread.  These  need  no  meat  accompani- 
ment and  will  satisfy  hunger  perfectly. 
Where  lunches  have  to  be  put  up  daily, 
these  breads  should  be  made  often.  Nut 
bread  with  butter  or  jam  is  the  delight 
of  all  who  have  been  given  it. 

Bread  become  stale  is  bread  in  its  most 
wholesome  state.  It  is  amazing  how 
slight  a  realization  most  women  have  of 
the  uses  of  stale  bread.  Not  a  crumb 
should  be  thrown  away.  In  this  one 
article  the  housewife  will  find  herself 
gaining  greatly  in  thrift  as  she  learns 
how  to  avail  herself  of  crumbs  and  broken 
bread.  Even  the  crumbs  that  remain  on 
the  bread-board  after  cutting  should  be 
turned  into  a  glass  jar.  Dried  slowly 
without  browning,  they  will  keep  indefi- 
nitely and  are  ready  for  any  number  of 


THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

purposes,  saving  cracker  crumbs.  All 
crumbs,  all  bits  of  bread,  and  heels 
of  loaves  should  be  dried  thoroughly, 
ground  fine  with  a  bread-roller  or  through 
a  meat-grinder,  and  they  are  even  better 
than  the  cracker  crumbs  one  buys  for 
breading  cutlets,  etc.  The  lightest  grid- 
dle-cakes have  bread  crumbs  as  their 
foundation ;  brown  bread  is  all  the  better 
for  having  part  of  the  wheat  flour  added 
as  crumbs. 

The  delicious  bread  sauce  so  favored 
in  England  with  roast  chicken  cannot 
be  made  without  bread  crumbs;  they 
may  be  combined  with  potatoes  for  fry- 
ing if  there  is  a  scant  supply  of  the  lat- 
ter ;  a  hash  is  improved  if  crumbs  take 
the  place  of  part  potato ;  bread  crumbs 
are  needed  in  all  households  for  breading 
cutlets,  croquettes,  chops  and  such  things. 
Bread  crumbs  help  well  to  fill  out  a 
meal  when  combined  with  mashed  po- 
tato, blended  with  an  egg,  all  seasoned, 


BKEAD  AND  CAKE  125 

shaped   in   small   balls  and  dropped  in 
deep  hot  fat. 

A  dish  of  considerable  substance  may  be 
prepared  from  crumbs  by  soaking  them 
in  a  cup  of  milk,  adding  an  egg,  season- 
ing well,  then  adding  a  spoonful  of  baking- 
powder  and  enough  flour  to  make  a  thin 
batter.  Into  this  stir  any  bits  of  meat 
you  have — if  it  is  only  a  spoonful  it  will 
give  flavor. 

Shavings  of  fat  pork,  nice  and  brown, 
are  very  good.  You  can  turn  the  batter 
over  the  fat  pork-crisps  and  bake  them 
like  pancakes.  If  you  cook  on  top  of 
the  stove,  when  one  side  is  brown,  turn 
it  and  brown  the  other.  It  can  be  baked 
in  the  oven  also.  You  can  have  a  hearty, 
appetizing  dish  by  having  some  bacon  in 
the  skillet  with  the  fat  and  turning  the 
batter  over  it.  Have  plenty  of  fat  but 
not  too  much,  which  is  when  it  comes 
above  the  dough.  To  have  crumbs  pre- 
pared is  a  saving  of  time  and  a  great 


126     THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

convenience.  Crumbs  for  scallops  should 
be  bigger  than  for  breading.  Always 
make  the  dough  for  anything  of  which 
crumbs  are  a  part  somewhat  thicker  than 
with  flour  alone.  Crumbs  may  be  mixed 
with  a  custard  and  "  make  it  go  farther  " 
without  making  it  less  palatable. 

Probably  there  is  more  unthrift  con- 
nected with  the  treatment  of  stale  bread 
than  in  any  one  other  branch  of  family 
service.  Garbage  men  can  tell  how  sel- 
dom does  one  find  a  garbage  pail  that  does 
not  hold  enough  of  bread  alone  to  feed  a 
hungry  man  for  a  day,  and  that  is  a  low 
limit,  as  any  one  knows  who  has  shared 
the  garbage  receptacle  of  an  apartment 
house.  Stale  bread  toasted,  dressed  with 
a  white  sauce  to  which  grated  cheese  has 
been  added,  makes  a  dish  with  nutrition 
enough  for  the  breakfast  of  a  man  who 
works  out-of-doors.  In  Europe,  cheese 
and  bread  are  an  important  part  of  the 
diet  and  may  well  help  those  who  wish 


BREAD  AND  CAKE  127 

to  make  thrift  take  the  place  of  dollars. 
Slices  of  cheese  are  served  for  breakfast 
in  some  parts  of  Europe  just  as  slices  of 
cold  meat  sometimes  are  served  in  the 
United  States. 

Crumbs  of  brown  bread  and  corn-meal 
bread  may  be  converted  into  baked 
Indian  pudding  by  substituting  them 
for  part  of  the  meal  the  recipe  calls  for. 
Then  follow  the  rule.  If  you  have  any 
dry  gingerbread  add  that  to  the  other. 
Bread  puddings  are  very  good  when  well 
made;  when  not  they  are  a  waste  of 
material.  There  are  many  kinds  of  ex- 
cellent puddings  which  will  use  the 
crumbs,  but  a  bread  pudding  which  calls 
for  several  eggs  should  be  made  very 
seldom.  Puddings  are  served  after  the 
appetite  is  satisfied  or  nearly  so,  and  the 
nutrition  of  the  meal  does  not  require 
eggs ;  when  the  main  part  of  the  meal 
has  been  light,  a  two-egg  pudding  is 
more  thrifty  than  at  other  times  because 


128     THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

there  is  need  of  more  food  value  in  the 
dessert.  Eggs  are  not  extravagant  when 
they  are  a  substitute  for  meat,  but  except 
when  of  low  cost,  are  wasteful  in  pud- 
dings and  cakes  because  they  are  added 
to  a  meal  which  does  not  need  them. 

Cake  cannot  be  called  a  necessity  of 
life  but  it  is  a  food  that  is  pleasant  and 
has  considerable  nutrition,  therefore  it 
may  have  an  occasional  place  on  the 
table  of  the  thrifty,  though  as  it  is  al- 
ways eaten  after  a  fulness  of  other  food, 
it  should  be  a  simple  combination  of  one 
egg,  or  two  at  most,  with  such  ingredients 
as  one  needs.  As  good  a  cake  as  any 
family  need  to  eat  may  be  made  with 
two  eggs  ;  if  you  make  simple  cakes  for 
daily  fare  you  will  not  mind  the  expense 
of  something  richer  on  festal  occasions. 

Most  experienced  housewives  have  a 
recipe  which  has  proved  worth  making 
up,  and  this  they  vary  as  they  need  other 
cakes.  For  instance,  gingerbread  by  the 


BREAD  AND  CAKE  129 

following  rule  has  been  made  in  our 
family  for  years  and  is  thoroughly  de- 
pendable. You  will  note  that  it  is  egg- 
less.  One-half  cup  of  molasses,  one- 
fourth  cup  sugar,  one-fourth  cup  melted 
shortening;  turn  on  these  one-half  cup 
of  boiling — not  just  hot — water.  I  use 
coffee  left  from  breakfast  in  place  of  the 
water  if  there  is  any.  Allow  enough 
flour  to  make  a  slightly  thick  batter 
(about  two  cups,  more  or  less),  with 
which  sift  one-half  teaspoonful  each  of 
soda,  salt,  and  ginger.  Bake  slowly,  as 
any  molasses  mixture  burns  readily. 
This  is  turned  into  a  bake-sheet  and 
baked  about  two  inches  thick.  That  is 
the  first  result. 

From  this  come  other  cakes.  Some- 
times I  bake  in  muffin  tins  and  have 
little  cakes ;  sometimes  to  the  original 
recipe  I  add  raisins,  or  chopped  dates,  or 
citron,  or  any  two  of  these  ;  sometimes  I 
turn  a  cup  of  black  walnut  meats  broken 


130     THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

rather  fine  into  the  dough,  and  find  it 
delicious.  Then  I  season  with  spices  as 
fruit  cake,  and  add  nuts,  raisins,  and  a 
little  minced  orange  peel  that  I  candied. 
I  made  my  Christmas  plum  pudding  as 
a  variation  of  this  recipe  and  it  was  as 
good  as  any  Christmas  pudding  needs 
to  be. 

Beside  being  plain  gingerbread  or  little 
cakes  it  is  made  in  layers ;  as  a  layer  cake 
it  does  not  need  as  much  flour.  If  for 
supper  dessert,  I  have  it  hot  and  spread 
between  the  layers  jelly  or  whipped 
cream  when  I  have  something  left  from 
my  week's  allowance.  Sometimes  I  make 
a  nut  or  other  filling.  Sometimes  I  make 
it  as  a  loaf.  As  my  oven  is  likely  to 
burn  on  the  bottom,  I  bake  my  cake  in 
my  iron  skillet  and  it  makes  a  pretty 
loaf  of  extra  size.  You  see  what  I  mean 
by  an  inexpensive  base  producing  many 
cakes.  You  can  turn  this  into  a  dark 
chocolate  cake  by  omitting  the  ginger 


BREAD  AND  CAKE  131 

and  using  an  ounce  of  cake  chocolate,  or 
two  spoonfuls  of  powdered  cocoa  or 
chocolate  with  it,  and  seasoning  with 
vanilla.  By  frosting  with  chocolate  or 
other  icing  you  will  have  a  cake  that 
seems  much  more  expensive  than  it  is. 
It  is  the  same  cake  in  all  forms  but  it 
does  not  taste  the  same  and  in  all  it 
is  inexpensive.  Of  course,  as  nuts  and 
fruits  go  into  it  the  cost  rises.  Ginger- 
bread is  the  most  desirable  form  of  cake 
for  home  consumption — speaking  from 
the  health  point — and  served  hot  will  de- 
light nearly  every  one.  There  are  recipes 
for  its  making  requiring  from  no  eggs 
to  four,  and  for  keeping  it  is  well  to  add 
an  egg,  but  gingerbread  never  keeps  with 
us.  It  is  so  good  that  it  quickly  disap- 
pears. 

It  is  very  well  to  use  several  eggs  in  a 
cake  or  pudding  if  one  serves  it  when 
there  is  very  little  preceding  it  as  food, 
but  not  otherwise.  When  one  has  satis- 


132     THEIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

fied  his  appetite  with  heavier  food  the 
system  does  not  need  the  protein  of  the 
eggs  and  it  is  mainly  wasted.  There  are 
many  good  eggless  recipes,  much  to  the 
purpose  with  eggs  at  fifty  to  sixty  cents  a 
dozen,  or  even  more.  Eggs  as  the  main 
dish  of  a  meal  are  not  extravagant,  even 
at  the  higher  price,  but  as  part  of  cakes 
and  puddings  they  are  not  used  in  our 
house  when  they  go  above  forty-five  cents 
a  dozen,  and  very  seldom  at  that  price. 
The  members  of  my  family  do  not  know 
whether  my  cake  is  made  with  eggs  or 
not,  but  they  say  "  it  tastes  like  more." 


CHAPTER  IX 
SOUPS 


CHAPTER  IX 
SOUPS 

HOUSEWIVES  in  this  country  do  not 
know  as  they  should  the  thrift  of  soups. 
They  understand  the  merits  of  chowders 
and  stews  which  are  dishes  containing 
everything  for  a  meal  in  one  composition, 
but  they  have  never  really  grasped  the 
economy  of  a  thin  soup  daily  at  the  be- 
ginning of  a  dinner.  It  is  truly  econom- 
ical. It  warms  the  stomach  and  starts 
the  digestive  apparatus  as  surely  as  does 
drinking  warm  water  before  eating.  Its 
work  is  very  much  the  same.  If  one  is 
very  hungry,  it  takes  the  edge  off  the  ap- 
petite, and  that  is  more  healthful  than 
eating  as  we  do  when  we  are  very 
hungry. 

Less  meat  is  eaten  when  soup  is  served, 

and  the  body  thrives  as  well.     As  a  rule, 
135 


136     THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

the  ordinary  household  does  not  serve 
soups  as  a  first  course  of  a  dinner,  seem- 
ing to  regard  it  as  a  luxury  for  the  table 
of  the  rich,  whereas  it  is  one  of  the 
greatest  economies.  It  is  rarely  neces- 
sary to  buy  material  for  the  daily  soup. 
In  my  household  nothing  except  an  oc- 
casional bunch  of  soup  herbs  was  bought 
for  soup  in  a  year.  The  bones  from  dif- 
ferent meats  and  fowl  supplied  the  stock, 
and  left-overs  of  vegetables  gave  variety. 
Cream  soups  are  too  heavy  for  a  first 
course  unless  the  second  be  of  vegetables 
or  the  less  nourishing  fish.  With  salmon 
or  oily  fish  it  is  a  bad  arrangement.  As 
an  economy,  one  should  not  make  cream 
soups  often.  Water  in  which  vegetables 
are  boiled  should  be  the  base  of  soups. 
French  housewives  do  not  add  meat 
juices  to  this.  The  water  with  a  little  of 
the  vegetable  in  it  is  seasoned  and  served 
with  sippets  of  bread  as  the  first  course. 
To  American  palates  it  seems  flat  at  first, 


SOUPS  137 

but  not  after  a  while,  and  the  water  con- 
tains mineral  salts  which  are  beneficial 
to  the  taker  of  them.  You  can  make 
your  soup  look  better  to  you  by  thicken- 
ing it  with  corn-starch  or  flour  to  what 
you  like  as  soup  consistency,  and  you 
can  add  milk  if  you  like  it  better  that 
way.  Season  it  well,  serve  with  it  crou- 
tons, which  are  dice  of  stale  bread  browned 
in  butter  or  bacon  fat.  Then  you  will 
have  a  good  soup. 

Did  you  know  you  could  make  nice 
soup  from  left-overs  of  fish  ?  One  of  the 
nicest  I  ever  had  or  ate  was  the  result  of 
an  experiment  of  mine.  I  boiled  the 
backbone  and  skin  of  a  cooked  finnan- 
haddie  for  half  or  three-quarters  of  an 
hour  in  water  ;  strained  it,  seasoned  with 
butter  and  salt,  added  milk  to  make  soup 
enough  for  serving,  and  passed  toasted 
crackers  with  it.  That  was  made  from 
what  seemed  to  be  wholly  waste,  and 
the  family  declared  it  as  good  as  oyster 


138     THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

soup.  Milk  may  be  added  to  any  soup 
except  meat  stock,  and  it  makes  the  soup 
richer  in  food  value. 

Unless  one  has  the  art  of  making  soups 
from  the  little  leavings  that  cannot  other- 
wise serve  the  family  there  is  no  econ- 
omy in  having  them,  but  it  will  pay  any 
housekeeper  to  acquire  the  knack  of 
making  good  soup  from  the  bits.  Fish- 
soups,  well  seasoned,  are  very  good  and 
should  be  more  frequently  served.  They 
require  milk  for  the  body  of  the  soup 
and  are  heartier  than  vegetable-soups  for 
which  water  is  the  stock. 

The  cook  who  wishes  to  surpass  her 
fellows  must  become  past  mistress  in 
the  art  of  seasoning.  She  will  use  dif- 
ferent spices  for  different  soups  and  not 
have  everything  taste  alike.  Continental 
cooks,  even  to  the  humblest  mother  of  a 
home,  know  how  to  season,  and  the  re- 
sult is  a  flavor  compounded  of  many  in- 
gredients, not  one  of  which  is  stronger 


SOUPS  139 

than  another.  One  will  use  a  single 
clove  or  peppercorn,  a  leaf  of  celery,  and 
so  on,  the  whole  being  so  delicious  to  the 
smell  that  one  is  made  eager  to  eat  it. 

Soups  are  always  thin,  about  as  thin 
as  milk ;  the  next  member  of  the  soup 
family  is  a  pure*e,  which  is  a  thick  soup, 
but  not  thick  enough  nor  compounded 
to  be  a  stew;  then  come  chowders  and 
stews,  which  are  really  meals  of  them- 
selves, not,  like  purges  and  soups,  aids  to 
a  meal.  Purges  of  the  legumes,  that  is, 
peas,  beans  of  all  varieties,  and  lentils,  are 
heavy  enough,  though  made  only  of  one 
ingredient  beside  water  and  seasoning,  to 
form  a  meal  with  bread  and  butter  that 
is  as  hearty  as  an  ordinary  woman  should 
eat  at  luncheon.  These  need  long  cook- 
ing, and  should  be  started  with  soaking 
overnight.  The  more  they  are  cooked, 
the  more  wholesome  they  are,  though 
they  need  not  measure  up  to  the  time  set 
by  Mother  Goose  for  her  bean  porridge. 


140     THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

The  national  dish  of  France  and  also 
of  Belgium  is  a  kind  of  chowder,  though 
called  soup,  because  it  never  would  be  a 
course  at  a  dinner.  As  you  would  ex- 
pect, the  pot  au-feu,  and  huitze  pot  are 
masterpieces  of  thrift,  and  as  the  need  in 
this  country  for  cheap  living  increases 
there  can  be  no  better  aid  to  meeting 
that  need  than  to  learn  to  make  either 
of  these  soups.  They  are  alike  in  their 
general  making,  for  which  there  is  no 
rule.  No  one  buys  new  material  for 
these  soups ;  they  are  a  combination  of 
what  cannot  go  on  the  table,  because 
there  may  not  be  enough  of  it.  The 
stock  pot  in  a  French  or  Belgian  family 
is  never  empty,  unless  for  an  occasional 
washing.  Into  it  go  the  left-overs,  a 
bean-pod,  a  leaf  of  cabbage  or  lettuce,  the 
bones  from  the  meat — these  are  rather  few 
— a  sausage,  and  so  on.  In  our  country 
the  garbage  pail  gets  all  of  these,  for  it  is 
the  little  bit  that  makes  the  pot  au-feu 


SOUPS  141 

and  the  huitze  pot,  and  all  the  bits  feed 
those  who  without  them  would  go  hungry. 
Then  the  pot  receives  the  water  it  needs, 
and  everything  simmers  away  for  hours, 
so  slowly  that  nothing  is  spoiled  by  hard 
boiling ;  another  agency  for  the  appetiz- 
ing result  is  the  flavoring.  That  cannot 
be  imparted  by  directions,  but  any  one 
can  learn  it  by  experimenting. 

Before  the  War,  one  would  see  in  the 
markets  the  children  of  the  very  poor 
gleaning  from  the  floor  of  the  market- 
place the  scraps  that  would  furnish  the 
huitze  pot  and  save  them  from  hunger. 
It  would  not  seem  that  these  bits  of 
refuse  could  be  made  of  any  service,  but 
a  bean-pod  is  not  the  less  something  to 
eat  because  it  has  fallen  to  the  ground, 
and  so  the  poor  are  fed,  for  the  children 
would  collect  a  basketful  of  odds  and 
ends  that  no  one  begrudged  them,  and 
no  one  else  wanted.  It  is  a  thrifty  people 
that  teaches  its  poor  to  make  something 


142     THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

worth  eating  from  what  it  finds  to  its 
hand.  Our  people  should  learn  the  same 
lesson  of  thrift,  though  perhaps  not  the 
same  application  of  it. 

Chowders  and  thick  soups  should  be 
eaten  as  the  hearty  dish  of  a  meal,  and 
should  not  be  preceded  by  a  soup.  They 
supply  all  the  nutrition  and  bulk  that 
the  system  needs  at  a  meal.  After  the 
legumes  have  been  strained,  do  not  throw 
away  the  pulp  which  has  a  great  deal  of 
the  peas,  beans,  or  lentils  still  with  it. 
Shape  it  into  a  mold  around  a  platter 
and  fill  the  space  with  sauerkraut  or  with 
left-over  meat  minced  and  thickened  with 
white  or  brown  sauce,  or  tomato  made 
solid  with  gelatine,  or  chopped  cabbage 
and  beets,  or  sliced  onions  and  cucum- 
bers, or  cabbage  with  diced  celery  and 
apples,  or  whatever  occurs  to  you.  If 
you  have  seasoned  everything  well,  so 
that  it  tastes  right  without  being  spiced 
much,  your  family  will  not  miss  meat 


SOUPS  143 

when  this  is  served.  First  you  will  have 
your  soup,  then  the  dish  which  is  so 
pretty  with  the  mold  and  contrasting 
center,  and  if  you  add  to  this  some 
corn-meal  muffins  or  johnny-cake,  so 
much  the  better,  with  a  light  dessert  for 
finish.  This  is  a  very  satisfactory  dinner 
for  active  workers,  but  a  little  heavy  for 
sedentary  workers  if  taken  in  the  middle 
of  the  day. 

Either  chowders  or  stews  may  be  baked 
if  preferred.  When  they  are  baked  in 
a  casserole  or  bean-pot  there  is  less  of 
the  waste  that  goes  into  the  air.  The 
economy  of  any  food  requiring  much 
cooking  depends  somewhat  upon  the  na- 
ture of  the  fuel.  If  you  keep  a  coal  fire 
for  its  heating  value,  any  cooking  you 
may  do  on  it  is  so  much  gained,  while 
if  gas  or  electricity  is  your  fuel,  cooking 
is  an  extra  cost  and  the  amount  may  be 
estimated  by  watching  the  meter.  It 
might  be  much  cheaper  to  provide  a  food 


144     THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

of  which  the  first  cost  was  considerably 
more  than  that  of  peas  or  beans,  but 
the  cooking  expense  very  much  less. 
When  you  have  made  your  fireless  cooker 
you  will  find  stews,  chowders,  and  such 
foods  very  nutritious  and  as  inexpensive, 
as  the  cost  of  cooking  by  fireless  is  so 
trifling.  If  you  want  to  keep  a  greater 
heat  in  the  cooker,  place  at  the  bottom 
under  your  kettle  a  brick  or  two  heated 
as  hot  as  is  safe.  If  you  have  an  old 
blanket  or  carpet  you  can  throw  over  the 
entire  outside,  so  much  the  better. 

All  gravies  are  a  good  starting-point 
for  a  soup.  Let  it  make  the  soup  for 
your  first  course.  Dilute  it  to  proper 
consistency,  season  with  whatever  you 
have,  add  any  left-over  vegetable  of 
which  there  is  only  a  spoonful  or  two,  or 
even  a  spoonful  of  the  cereal  from  break- 
fast which  will  thicken  it  somewhat. 
Simmer  it  for  a  couple  of  hours,  strain, 
add  croutons,  or  noodles,  and  serve. 


SOUPS  145 

Make  only  enough  for  one  meal  at  a 
time.  When  there  is  gravy,  it  may  be 
added  to  tne  water  in  which  a  yester- 
day's vegetable  was  boiled.  If  there  is 
no  gravy,  milk  may  be  the  base  of  the 
soup  flavored  with  the  water  for  the  vege- 
tables. 

If  you  think  a  soup  so  compounded 
will  not  be  worth  serving,  try  this  which 
I  served  yesterday.  The  spinach  for  din- 
ner was  cooked  only  in  the  water  that 
clung  to  its  leaves,  but  as  it  cooks,  the 
steam  brings  out  more,  and  when  the 
spinach  is  done  there  will  be  a  pint  of 
liquid.  This  contains  the  mineral  salts 
which  are  so  valuable  for  the  body. 
Spinach  furnishes  iron,  and  unless  one 
gets  some  part  of  the  liquid,  all  of  this  is 
lost.  To  my  mind,  it  is  better  economy 
to  administer  iron  in  this  way  than  as  a 
drug.  This  liquor  was  hot,  salted,  half  a 
pint  of  milk  added,  the  bits  of  the  vegeta- 
ble left  in  the  soup,  and  a  nicer  light  soup 


146     THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

you  will  not  often  find.  One  of  the  best 
arguments  for  saving  the  water  in  which 
vegetables  are  cooked  is  the  eating  of  the 
wholesome  part  of  the  vegetable,  other- 
wise lost. 

A  simple  soup  may  be  made  from  the 
liquor  that  surrounds  canned  peas.  Add 
to  it  two  tablespoonfuls  of  peas  mashed 
through  a  sieve.  Put  the  liquid  and  the 
mashed  peas  into  a  pan  with  a  scant  pint 
of  milk  and  a  thickening  of  corn-starch. 
Cook  only  long  enough  to  remove  the 
rawness  of  the  corn-starch.  Season,  and 
serve  with  croutons.  This  soup  is  rich  in 
nutrition. 

If  you  want  to  increase  the  nutriment 
of  a  soup,  serve  it  with  grated  cheese,  for 
which  you  can  use  the  hard  cheese  not 
fit  for  serving  at  table  as  cheese  with  des- 
sert. You  can  even  make  a  cheese  soup 
if  you  wish  which  will  be  too  nourishing 
to  be  served  with  much  else  for  a  meal. 
The  foundation  is  milk  and  water,  in 


SOUPS  147 

equal  parts,  brought  to  the  boiling-point, 
thickened  with  flour  or  corn-starch  in  the 
proportion  of  a  tablespoonful  to  a  quart. 
When  this  is  cooked  and  seasoned  with 
paprika,  mustard,  and  salt  to  suit  taste, 
add  two  tablespoonfuls  of  grated  cheese 
to  a  quart.  Serve  with  cubes  of  hot  toast, 
or  toasted  crackers,  and  you  have  a  good 
supper  for  a  cold  night. 


CHAPTER  X 
OILS  AND  FATS 


CHAPTER  X 
OILS  AND  FATS 

OILS  and  fats  are  important  articles  in 
the  family  diet  and  at  the  present  time 
are  mounting  in  price  so  rapidly  that  to 
supply  them  becomes  a  real  problem.  To 
the  woman  who  regards  lard  as  the  only 
material  to  be  considered  for  shortening 
and  frying,  there  is  nothing  to  be  said, 
but  there  are  other  fats  equally  good  or 
better,  and  the  systematic  saving  and 
clarifying  of  fats  brought  out  in  cooking 
will  lessen  very  considerably  the  amount 
that  must  be  bought. 

Save  water  in  which  meat  has  been 
boiled,  and  let  it  cool  with  the  fat  in  it. 
It  will  rise  to  the  top,  become  a  firm  cake 
which  may  be  removed,  freed  from  any 

scum  at  the  under  side,  and  will  be  as 
151 


152     THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

good  for  most  cooking  as  the  fat  you  pay 
well  for.  Before  cooking  sausage  scald  it 
with  boiling  water.  Let  it  stand.  Grease 
will  cover  the  top  of  the  water.  Remove 
the  sausage,  turn  the  water  into  an  open 
jar  with  large  top,  and  treat  the  fat  that 
forms  into  cake  in  the  same  manner  as 
the  other.  This  will  be  flavored  with 
spices,  but  it  is  very  excellent  shortening 
for  dark  cakes  and  gingerbread.  It  is 
good  for  frying  potatoes,  but  cannot  be 
as  generally  used  for  shortening  as  the  fat 
from  beef  and  pork. 

All  fat  from  cooking  should  be  saved 
and  clarified  ;  to  clear  it,  put  over  the  fire 
and  heat  until  the  water  evaporates,  being 
careful  that  the  fat  neither  discolors  nor 
burns.  An  easier  method  is  to  boil  all 
fats  in  water,  s-alt  when  taking  from  the 
heat,  and  let  it  cool  on  the  water.  Fat  so 
cleared  is  always  white.  If  bits  of  skin, 
etc.,  are  caught  in  it  when  cooling,  strain 
through  a  clean  cloth  or  very  fine  sieve. 


OILS  AND  FATS  153 

You  can  strain  water  and  all,  and  the  fat 
will  separate  so  that  it  needs  no  further 
care  except  to  take  it  from  the  water. 
This  fat  may  be  used  acceptably  in  place 
of  butter  and  lard. 

Fat  from  lamb  and  mutton  will  lose  its 
objectionable  features  if  mixed  in  the  pro- 
portion of  one-third  lamb  or  mutton  fat 
and  two-thirds  beef  or  pork  fat.  Chicken 
fat  is  one  of  the  very  best  of  fats,  and 
when  mixed  with  beef  and  pork  fat  it 
looks  like  butter.  It  does  not  injure  fats 
for  cooking  to  be  combined.  Chicken 
fat  should  be  tried  out  like  others,  and  if 
a  fowl  is  very  fat  the  excess  should  not  be 
cooked  with  the  bird  but  reserved  for 
cooking.  It  may  be  used  for  cakes,  pud- 
dings, and  biscuits,  and  gives  no  hint  of 
any  unpleasant  flavor.  As  the  fat  of  suet 
is  rather  hard  when  cool,  that  of  poultry 
is  well  mixed  with  it  to  lighten  it. 

Suet  is  a  wholesome  fat  and  should  form 
part  of  the  family's  material  much  oftener 


154     THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

than  it  does.  To  use  it  is  true  thrift. 
When  it  is  chopped  very  fine  it  makes 
good  shortening  for  puddings  and  the 
crust  of  meat  pies.  It  is  not  good  short- 
ening for  things  to  be  eaten  cold  because 
it  coagulates  as  it  cools.  Suet  tried  out 
is  white  and  inviting.  It  can  be  used  ex- 
actly as  lard  is  and  for  the  same  purposes. 
It  may  take  the  place  of  butter  in  sauces 
and  gravies.  Its  value  in  the  household 
economy  should  be  better  known.  Its 
first  cost  is  the  lowest  of  all  cooking  fats 
except  mutton,  which  owing  to  its  tend- 
ency to  form  a  coating  on  whatever  it 
touches,  can  be  used  only  in  combination 
with  other  fats. 

One  housekeeper,  with  some  local  re- 
nown as  a  cook,  uses  suet  entirely  in  her 
cooking.  She  buys  at  the  rate  of  two 
pounds  for  fifteen  cents,  tries  it  out  with 
water,  and  has  something  over  a  pound 
and  a  half  of  very  nice  shortening.  The 
fat  tried  out  from  the  suet  known  as 


OILS  AND  FATS  155 

cord-fat  is  no  stiffer  than  good  lard. 
Cord-fat  is  the  fat  about  the  intestines 
and  costs  less  than  some  other,  and 
harder  suet.  Suet  works  very  well  mixed 
with  lard  or  vegetable  oil  in  any  pro- 
portion. 

Bacon  fat  has  so  much  merit  that  not 
a  drop  of  it  should  be  wasted.  The 
French  use  it  in  salad  dressing,  and  like 
it 'better  than  any  other  oil  for  that  pur- 
pose. It  may  serve  very  well  in  many 
ways  not  commonly  known.  It  may  be 
the  shortening  for  gingerbread,  or  it  may 
even  be  used  to  enrich  biscuit,  and  you 
will  be  surprised  to  find  that  there  will 
be  no  bacon  iaste  to  the  biscuit  unless 
you  have  let  the  fat  become  browned.  It 
rather  improves  corn-bread  to  have  the 
seasoning  of  bacon,  and  it  seems  to  be  a 
richer  shortening  than  lard  in  the  same 
quantity.  I  have  seen  a  housekeeper 
who  always  talks  about  the  high  cost  of 
living  and  who  earnestly  strives  to  lessen 


156     THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

her  part  of  it  empty  into  her  sink  all  the 
grease  from  the  breakfast  bacon.  She 
did  not  know  she  could  use  it  for  any- 
thing but  frying  potatoes,  and  she  did 
not  know  that  she  could  keep  it  sweet  as 
long  as  lard  if  she  kept  it  cool  and  clean. 
When  you  empty  the  skillet  in  which 
you  have  been  frying  bacon,  do  not  wash 
it.  Have  some  griddle-cakes  for  breakfast, 
or  something  else  to  use  up  the  fat  that 
does  not  run  from  the  skillet.  You  will 
have  more  left  in  it  than  you  realize,  so 
why  throw  away  a  fat  and  then  be  obliged 
to  replace  by  some  more  that  which  you 
wasted  ?  Do  not  leave  the  skillet  stand- 
ing day  after  day  with  left-over  grease  in 
it,  as  that  will  attract  bugs  and  hold  dirt, 
but  plan  to  use  it  the  next  meal,  for  an 
omelet  or  any  one  of  the  many  things  you 
cook  in  a  greased  skillet. 

Vegetable  oils  steadily  make  their  way 
in  popular  favor,  and  though  the  first 
cost  seems  rather  more  it  really  is  not, 


OILS  AND  FATS  15Y 

for  only  half  as  much  of  the  oils  for 
cooking  are  used  in  any  recipe  as  the 
amount  of  butter  or  lard  given  in  the 
recipe  as  necessary.  Dietists  claim  a 
wholesomeness  for  the  vegetable  oils  that 
is  lacking  to  the  animal  oils.  They  give 
a  very  pleasant  flavor  and  a  delightful 
brownness  to  whatever  is  fried  in  them. 

In  frying,  it  really  is  cheaper  to  use  a 
deep  fat — this  is  the  true  frying — enough 
to  cover  the  article  to  be  cooked  by  it, 
than  to  use  only  surface  fat,  renewing  as 
it  disappears.  At  best  it  is  a  wasteful 
manner  of  cooking  with  the  arguments 
many  and  strong  against  it  for  health's 
sake.  Anything  that  soaks  fat  and  leaves 
grease  on  the  plate  is  unfit  for  food.  For 
the  thrifty,  frying  will  never  be  a  favor- 
ite method  of  cooking,  but  for  croquettes 
and  some  other  articles  one  must  use  it 
now  and  then.  When  frying,  do  not  let 
the  fat  get  smoking  hot  and  stand  wait- 
ing for  the  cook  to  use  it.  Be  ready  be- 


158     THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

fore  the  fat  is,  and  drop  into  it  only  a 
little  at  a  time,  since  its  temperature  falls 
with  each  cold  spoonful  put  into  it.  This 
is  not  only  an  economy  of  fat,  but  is  the 
only  way  of  keeping  an  even  temperature 
for  the  articles  plunged  into  it. 

One  fat  preparation  against  which  prej- 
udice has  done  much  deserves  better 
treatment  than  it  has  had,  and  if  once 
tested  in  a  family  remains  there.  Thou- 
sands of  families  who  have  to  buy  poor 
butter,  really  unfit  for  eating,  refuse  to 
try  oleomargarine  because  they  have  read 
so  much  against  it  written  by  those  in- 
terested in  selling  butter,  and  with  them 
it  is  like, 

"  No  man  e'er  felt  the  halter  draw, 
With  good  opinion  of  the  law." 

The  butter  interest  is  rich,  and  it  has 
printed  much  against  oleomargarine  that 
is  not  just,  and  it  has  succeeded  in  mak- 
ing a  heavy  penalty  fall  on  the  merchant 
who  sells  it  colored  like  butter.  There 


OILS  AND  FATS  159 

is  now  a  heavy  tax  on  each  pound  of  col- 
ored oleomargarine.  I  have  a  friend  who 
ate  oleomargarine  for  two  years,  paying 
thirty-five  cents  a  pound  as  she  supposed 
for  butter.  That  is  the  argument  of  the 
butter-sellers  against  it.  It  cuts  out  the 
sale  of  butter,  but  to  the  man  whose 
salary  is  twenty  dollars  a  week  or  less, 
that  does  not  seem  an  argument  against  it 
when  a  good  sweet  butter  costs  him  from 
forty-five  cents  a  pound  upwards,  and 
then  does  not  keep  as  sweet  as  oleo  does. 
Oleo  is  a  more  cleanly  fat  than  cheap, 
worked-over  butters,  and  has  been  im- 
proved so  greatly  that  if  Congress  had 
not  hurt  its  sale  by  establishing  for  it  a 
standard  of  whiteness  strongly  prejudicial 
to  it  in  the  customer's  eyes,  thousands 
now  would  be  eating  it  to  their  decided 
advantage  who  now  go  without  eating 
any  butter  fat  or  else  buy  what  they  can- 
not afford  to  buy.  One  would  object  to 
eating  the  uncolored  oleo  just  as  he  ob- 


160     THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

jects  to  eating  white  butter.  There  is 
no  law  against  coloring  that.  Makers 
are  allowed  to  color  butter  without  stat- 
ing on  the  wrapper  that  it  has  been  so 
treated.  Why  this  is  permitted  and  such 
restriction  placed  on  coloring  oleomarga- 
rine with  the  same  ingredient  is  one 
of  the  peculiarities  of  legislation  which 
affect  the  buyer  uncomfortably  and  make 
him  somewhat  cynical  when  he  reads  of 
"  equal  rights  for  all."  To  him  it  seems 
to  indicate  that  really  there  is  quite  a 
difference  between  tweedledum  and 
tweedledee. 

June  butter  gives  naturally  the  color 
that  the  eye  craves,  but  only  June  butter 
has  it,  from  the  quality  of  new  grass.  It 
would  be  impossible  to  make  enough 
butter  in  one  month  to  supply  the  de- 
mand during  the  year,  and  some  milk 
would  not  give  it  at  all,  but  as  the 
public  will  not  buy  white  butter,  all 
butter-makers  are  allowed  to  color  it  at 


OILS  AND  FATS  161 

their  desire  in  order  to  increase  the  sell- 
ing properties  of  their  product,  which  is 
the  same  reason  that  the  makers  of 
oleomargarine  want  to  use  it,  and  would 
if  it  were  not  for  the  weight  of  the  in- 
fluence of  the  butter-makers.  The  color- 
ing is  vegetable  and  may  be  used  with 
perfect  safety.  In  fact,  a  bottle  of  color- 
ing may  be  sold  with  the  uncolored 
oleomargarine  which  the  buyer  may  mix 
with  it,  and  that  is  lawful.  Isn't  that 
interesting,  consistent,  and  amusing  ? 

If  one  does  not  want  oleomargarine  he 
will  not  buy  it  even  if  it  is  colored,  but 
next  to  butter,  it  is  the  best  preparation, 
and  it  is  so  good  a  butter  substitute  that 
you  cannot  tell  the  difference  sometimes, 
therefore  I  advise  the  use  of  it  for  those 
who  seek  thrift.  Recently  I  had  some 
butter  at  fifty-four  cents  a  pound  and 
some  oleomargarine  at  twenty-seven,  and 
those  at  the  table  could  not  tell  by  taste 
or  eye  which  was  the  butter.  In  cook- 


162     THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

ing  anything,  there  is  a  separation  in  the 
hot  fat  that  proves  it  to  be  oleomargarine, 
but  does  not  affect  the  flavor  at  all. 

In  England,  the  meat  drippings  are 
sold  in  small  groceries  and  the  poor  buy 
that  instead  of  butter.  Others  beside  the 
poor  buy  it.  "  Spread  bread  with  drip- 
pings and  toast  it  in  the  oven  and  you 
will  find  it  a  very  good  dish,"  said  an 
Englishwoman  to  me.  Equally  good 
will  you  find  it  to  take  your  stale  bread, 
spread  over  it  the  crisp  scraps  that  are  left 
after  frying  out  the  fat  of  suet,  and  toast- 
ing these  and  bread  together  in  a  good 
oven.  There  is  no  need  for  butter  sub- 
stitute beyond  these.  Try  it  some  cold 
night  for  supper  with  some  vegetable 
accompaniment.  It  will  be  very  nice 
with  the  bean  soup  or  other  legumes. 

These  crisp  scraps  are  also  very  pleasant 
to  the  taste  stirred  into  corn-meal  breads 
before  baking.  No  other  shortening  will 
be  necessary. 


OILS  AND  FATS  163 

There  is  something  else  to  be  considered 
from  fats,  and  that  is  the  economy  of 
turning  the  waste  fats  into  soap.  Fats 
that  are  not  clean  enough  for  eating  may 
be  converted  into  soap  with  as  little  labor 
as  to  make  bread.  You  can,  if  you  wish, 
make  several  dollars'  worth  of  good  soap 
for  no  greater  expense  than  the  potash 
used  with  the  fat.  If  you  think  you  will 
try  it,  have  a  receptacle  for  scraps  of 
cooked  fats,  trimming  of  meats  that  can- 
not be  tried  out  for  table  use,  what  is  left 
after  trying  out  all  suet,  extra  amounts 
of  mutton  fat,  which  is  very  agreeable  to 
the  skin,  and  when  you  have  six  pounds 
you  will  be  ready  to  make  your  soap. 

Have  at  hand  a  tin  of  reliable  potash. 
Dissolve  the  lye  in  three  quarts  of  cold 
water  in  a  large  kettle  on  the  back  of  the 
stove,  then  put  in  the  scraps  and  boil 
until  they  seem  to  be  dissolved.  You 
will  be  surprised  to  see  how  they  will  be 
converted  by  the  lye.  Strain  the  liquid 


164     THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

through  a  sieve.  Boil  the  scraps  about 
ten  minutes  with  a  little  water  to  draw 
from  them  what  they  retain,  and  add  to 
the  first  water.  Throw  the  scraps  away. 
Put  the  other  part  on  the  stove  to  boil 
until  it  is  converted  into  soap  and  looks 
like  a  very  thick  cream.  When  it 
reaches  this  stage  add  one-third  cup  pure 
borax  dissolved  in  a  little  water,  and 
one-half  cup  of  ammonia.  Be  very  care- 
ful it  does  not  boil  over,  which  it  does 
quickly,  and  stir  with  a  wooden  spoon. 
When  you  take  it  from  the  stove,  stir 
into  it  one-half  cup  of  sugar  to  make  it 
like  froth,  stir  well  for  five  minutes,  then 
turn  into  dish  to  cool.  You  can  put  it 
into  a  wide-mouthed  stone  crock  and  cut 
a  slice  as  you  want  it.  This  soap  is  not 
as  hard  as  bar  soap  and  harder  than  soft 
soap.  It  is  for  kitchen  use  wholly.  If 
any  liquid  settles,  you  can  use  it  for 
floors  or  for  putting  clothes  to  soak. 
On  all  tins  of  good  lye  there  will  be 


OILS  AND  FATS  165 

found  a  recipe  for  making  soap,  not  all 
having  the  same  recipe,  but  the  one  I 
have  given  is  one  which  has  been  used  for 
years  in  one  family,  and  has  been  found 
serviceable  without  being  hard  on  the 
hands.  Excess  of  lye  will  make  any 
soap  bad  for  the  skin,  but  the  proportion 
given  is  not  severe. 

If  you  da  not  care  to  serve  thrift  by 
making  your  year's  supply  of  soap  for 
about  fifty  cents,  take  the  waste  scraps 
you  would  have  used  in  this  way  and 
keep  them  wrapped  in  paper  in  a  thick 
paper  bag;  when  you  want  a  quick  fire  or 
to  kindle  your  fire  use  these  scraps.  Of 
course  you  must  not  keep  many  on  hand 
as  they  will  corrupt,  but  for  rapid  heat 
they  are  excellent. 


CHAPTER  XI 
COAL  AND  ICE 


CHAPTER  XI 
COAL  AND  ICE 

THE  cost  of  fuel  is  a  very  heavy  ex- 
pense in  all  families,  and  the  less  one 
knows  about  how  to  run  a  fire,  the 
heavier  the  expense.  Knowledge  is 
economy  in  warming  a  house  and  getting 
the  heat  for  which  one  has  paid.  The 
greatest  economy  in  fuel  is  that  which  is 
given  by  proper  running  of  the  fire.  Few 
know  how  ;  those  who  do  know  can  heat 
their  houses  on  a  much  smaller  amount 
of  coal.  Those  who  do  not  want  heavy 
coal  bills  will  show  thrift  by  living  in  a 
sunny  house  and  letting  every  bit  of  sun- 
shine get  into  the  rooms.  That  makes  a 
perceptible  difference  in  the  amount  of 
coal  one  burns. 

The   fire-pot   of  the   stove  or  furnace 

should  never  be  heaped  to  the  top,  but 
169 


170     THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

the  coal  always  kept  on  the  line  of  the 
fire-brick.  All  coal  above  that  is  wasted, 
and  by  obstructing  the  draft  lessens  the 
heat  obtained.  Those  who  do  not  know 
how  to  get  heat  out  of  coal  always  pile 
the  stove  full  and  learn  nothing  by  ex- 
perience. The  coal  should  be  started  so 
that  the  gas  shall  be  burned  off  gradu- 
ally, then  the  furnace  or  range  regulated 
so  that  the  coal  burns  steadily  without 
burning  fast.  It  is  the  rapid,  almost 
white-hot  fire  burning  out  at  once  that 
forms  clinkers,  which  are  always  the 
indication  of  uneven  firing. 

In  warming  a  house  it  is  not  necessary 
to  be  throwing  coal  on  almost  as  often 
as  one  would  throw  wood,  and  when  a 
furnace  is  fired  in  that  way  it  is  a  waste 
of  fuel,  heat,  and  money.  It  is  an  econ- 
omy to  sift  ashes  if  one  burns  coal  in 
such  a  fashion  that  a  large  part  of  it  is 
left  unburned,  but  it  is  a  much  greater 
economy  to  burn  it  in  such  a  manner 


COAL  AND  ICE  171 

that  no  cinders  and  no  un burned  or  half- 
burned  coal  remain  to  be  burned  again. 
The  art  of  running  a  coal  fire  has  to  be 
learned  by  practice,  and  you  have  it  when 
you  do  not  find  stove  or  furnace  filled 
with  cinders  or  half-burned  coal. 

When  we  began  our  housekeeping 
neither  of  us  knew  anything  about  a 
furnace  or  what  coal  to  buy,  and  what 
we  did  get  vanished  with  a  saddening 
rapidity.  More  than  that,  the  furnace 
fire  went  out  regularly  each  day,  but 
"  knowledge  is  power  "  with  furnaces  as 
with  other  things  and  both  members  of 
the  family  proceeded  to  get  knowledge 
experimentally  and  by  asking  others. 
Now  we  know  how  to  run  a  furnace 
and  keep  warm  on  as  small  amount  of 
coal  as  any  one  we  know.  If  we  found 
those  who  could  do  it  for  less  we  should 
at  once  learn  from  them.  Why  burn 
ten  tons  of  coal  if  nine  can  be  made  to 
furnish  the  necessary  heat  ? 


172     THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

We  started  our  career  as  firemen  with 
kitchen  and  furnace  coal,  big  pieces 
which  filled  the  fire-box  and  burned 
with  discouraging  quickness.  One  of  our 
consulted  said,  "  Why  don't  you  try  pea 
coal?"  That  is  a  very  small  coal,  and 
when  we  tried  it  it  fell  through  the  grate 
almost  as  fast  as  it  went  in  at  the  top. 
Further  consultation-led  to  starting  the 
fire  with  a  good  bed  of  furnace  coal  over 
which  the  small  coal  is  laid.  The  small 
coal  forms  a  bed  on  which  more  is  laid, 
and  once  we  learned  how,  it  was  thor- 
oughly satisfactory  for  heat,  for  lasting, 
and  for  cost,  as  pea  coal  is  much  less  dear 
than  the  larger  coal,  and  though  you  get 
no  more  pounds  for  the  money,  what  you 
do  get  seems  to  go  farther.  The  fire  has 
kept  eighteen  hours  without  attention 
and  then  burned  up. 

In  our  endeavors  to  find  warmth  at  a 
reasonable  rate  we  tried  coke  which  had 
been  recommended  to  us,  but  we  did  not 


COAL  AND  ICE  173 

like  it  as  well  as  the  pea  coal.  Coke  as 
recommended  to  us  would  be  mixed,  one 
part  of  coke  to  two  parts  of  coal.  It 
worked  fairly  well,  making  a  hot  fire 
which  was  soon  exhausted.  Burned  in 
any  larger  proportion,  it  soon  burns  out 
the  fire-box  because  it  gives  such  an  in- 
tense heat.  There  is  the  further  disad- 
vantage of  having  to  renew  fuel  much 
more  frequently  than  with  coal  alone, 
and  this  extra  amount  burned  serves  to 
offset  considerably  any  apparent  saving 
in  first  cost.  Our  experience  in  burning 
coke  was  that  coke  was  an  expensive  and 
unsatisfactory  fuel,  increasing  labor  and 
dirt. 

Any  woman  who  wants  merely  to  keep 
a  fire  going  in  her  kitchen  should  be  able 
to  hold  the  fire  on  a  large  hodful  of  coal 
a  day.  The  average  kitchen  maid  will 
burn  four  hodfuls  to  produce  the  same 
effect.  When  not  intending  to  use  the 
fire  for  cooking,  just  keep  it  alive  and 


174     THKIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

increase  the  heat  gradually  as  needed, 
and  your  part  in  the  cost  of  coal  will 
lessen  with  no  decrease  in  the  efficiency 
of  what  is  burned.  It  is  less  expensive 
to  keep  a  furnace  fire  going  than  to  build 
it,  but  if  one  is  going  to  cook  much  when 
a  great  heat  is  desired  in  the  oven  it  is 
better  to  start  a  new  fire  in  the  range, 
Much  less  coal  will  keep  a  fire  than  will 
start  it,  therefore  let  your  effort  for  thrift 
influence  you  to  get  well  acquainted  with 
the  idiosyncrasies  of  your  furnace  and 
range.  If  you  are  at  all  imaginative, 
long  before  you  have  mastered  it  you 
will  believe  firmly  in  "  the  total  de- 
pravity of  inanimate  things,"  and  that 
your  furnace  is  the  worst,  but  as  you 
learn  what  it  can  do  you  will  forget  all 
that  and  be  ready  to  tell  your  neighbors 
how  you  can  produce  wonderful  results 
instead  of  discomfort. 

If  you  have  poor  coal  you  may  find  it 
better  to  sift  your  ashes.     Some  coal  is 


COAL  AND  ICE  175 

more  wasteful  than  others.  It  is  cheaper 
also  to  buy  of  some  dealers  than  of  others 
whose  prices  are  less.  Slate  is  cheaper 
than  coal  in  cash  but  not  for  long.  Get 
a  good  dealer  and  stick  to  him.  Buy 
your  coal  if  you  possibly  can  during  the 
summer  months  when  prices  are  lowest, 
and  buy  your  year's  supply  then.  Some- 
times you  can  buy  it  without  having  it 
all  delivered  at  once,  but  sent  to  you  as 
you  need  it,  in  two-ton  loads.  If  you 
own  your  house  and  live  where  cold 
winters  are,  you  will  find  it  a  decided 
economy  to  put  double  windows  on  the 
cold  side  of  the  house.  A  Maine  man 
once  told  me  that  in  one  winter  he  saved 
the  cost  of  the  double  windows  by  the 
difference  in  the  coal  burned  before  and 
after  he  had  them. 

During  the  coal  strike  some  years  ago, 
the  following  method  of  getting  heat 
from  cinders  was  evolved  ;  it  was  given 
to  me  by  one  who  had  followed  it  for  five 


176     THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

years,  but  personally  I  know  nothing  of 
its  efficacy.  "  Get  ten-cents'  worth  of 
oxalic  acid  crystals  and  dissolve  in  two 
gallons  of  water  with  one  bag  of  coarse 
salt.  I  got  two  bags  for  ten  cents.  (The 
price  will  be  higher  now.)  Use  one  bag 
with  a  hod  of  fine  ashes  or  cinders.  Roll 
in  balls  and  put  in  middle  of  fire-pot. 
It  makes  an  exceedingly  hot  fire  and  is  a 
great  saving.  I  used  three  barrels  of 
furnace  cinders  in  one  winter.  If  clink- 
ers form,  put  into  the  fire  the  peeling  of 
yellow  turnips  (rutabaga)  and  the  clink- 
ers drop  off."  The  expense  of  trying  this 
is  not  much  and  it  may  be  found  avail- 
able for  you. 

For  fuel  save  corn-cobs  and  dry  them. 
Also  the  skins  of  vegetables  if  there  is  no 
other  method  of  turning  them  to  use. 
The  writer  once  lived  in  a  city  where 
there  was  no  coal  to  be  had  for  three 
weeks,  and  the  inhabitants  used  corn- 
cobs for  fuel.  They  make  an  intense 


COAL  AND  ICE  iTT 

heat,  soon  over,  and  are  not  practical 
when  one  has  other  material  but  the  cobs 
from  corn  eaten  in  summer  time  may  be 
dried  for  kindling  or  for  open  fire  in  fall 
or  winter. 

ICE 

It  may  seem  impossible  to  go  through  a 
summer  without  ice  and  preserve  butter, 
meats,  and  other  foods,  but  thousands  of 
persons  in  parts  of  the  earth  where  artifi- 
cial ice  is  not  made  and  natural  ice  never 
forms  do  live  comfortably  without  it. 
They  have  learned  how  to  produce  cool- 
ness by  other  means.  Whatever  method 
will  keep  heat  in  food  can  be  modified  to 
keep  it  cool ;  for  instance,  the  fireless 
cooker,  and  the  thermos  bottle.  Rapid 
evaporation  is  the  explanation  of  some 
methods,  keeping  hot  air  from  the  foods 
to  be  cooled.  The  Department  of  Agri- 
culture has  prepared  a  bulletin  giving 
directions  for  making  an  iceless  refrig- 
erator, and  it  is  as  useful  in  one  State  as 


178     THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

in  another,  though  it  was  written  more 
particularly  for  those  States  with  most 
heat  and  least  convenience  for  getting 
ice.  The  Department  of  Publications  will 
send  the  bulletin  for  ten  cents.  Mean- 
time, try  the  suggestions  to  be  given 
herein. 

Never  buy  ice  when  it  is  cool  enough 
to  keep  butter  firm  by  putting  it  outside. 
If  you  want  ice  in  really  cold  weather, 
all  that  you  need  do  to  get  it  is  to  set  a 
pail  or  pan  of  water  out-of-doors  and  let 
it  remain  there  overnight.  What  need 
of  paying  the  iceman  for  it  ? 

Keep  your  provisions  in  the  coolest 
place  about  the  house.  Keep  butter  and 
milk  sweet  without  ice  by  placing  in  a 
pan,  and  this  pan  in  another  consider- 
ably larger.  In  the  bigger  one  have 
enough  water  to  come  to  the  top  of  the 
smaller,  and  to  the  water  add  two  table- 
spoonfuls  of  salt.  Soak  a  large  flower- 
pot until  it  is  saturated  with  water.  It 


COAL  AND  ICE  179 

must  be  large  enough  to  go  to  the  bottom 
of  the  larger  pan,  and  to  cover  the  smaller 
entirely  when  it  is  turned  over  it.  Being 
porous,  rapid  evaporation  is  constantly 
going  on,  and  will  keep  everything 
within  firm  and  cool.  A  fancy  flower- 
pot will  not  do  for  this.  It  must  be  the 
unvarnished  terra-cotta  pot.  Once  a 
week  it  should  have  another  soaking. 
This  is  much  the  same  as  the  method 
practised  in  some  tropical  countries  to 
keep  water  cool,  and  is  equally  efficacious 
with  foods. 

Another  adaptation  of  the  same  prin- 
ciple is  to  cover  the  inner  dish  with  a 
towel  which  has  been  wet  in  cold  water, 
folded  in  such  a  manner  that  the  corners 
will  hang  down  into  the  water  of  the  large 
dish.  Keep  the  pan  in  a  cool  place  and 
butter  will  be  as  firm  as  in  winter.  By 
capillary  attraction  there  will  be  a  steady 
current  of  water  from  the  dish  through 
the  cloth.  Renew  the  water  in  the  dish 


180     THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

and  change  it  daily.  Campers  often  use 
this  method  of  preserving  perishable 
goods. 

If  you  have  occasion  to  save  bits  of  ice 
in  a  room  through  the  night,  protect  them 
by  lining  a  dish  with  wet  white  flannel ; 
fill  it  with  ice,  cover  outside  and  in  with 
more  flannel,  and  set  in  a  cool  place.  In 
a  bowl  the  ice  will  last  overnight.  This 
is  advantageous  for  an  invalid. 

If  you  take  ice  you  can  keep  it  in 
many  ways  from  melting.  The  iceman 
says  the  best  preservative  is  several  thick- 
nesses of  newspaper  over  the  ice.  But 
if  you  feel  a  prejudice  against  having 
your  ice  thus  protected  you  can  try  the 
pad  described  herewith.  It  is  excellent 
in  its  effect.  It  must  be  kept  as  clean  as 
the  refrigerator  should  be.  To  make  it, 
get  a  piece  of  heavy  felting  at  least  half 
an  inch  in  thickness.  Lay  this  between 
two  sheets  of  woven  wire,  preferably  the 
galvanized,  as  it  will  not  rust  and  will 


COAL  AND  ICE  181 

last  five  times  as  long  as  the  non-gal- 
vanized. Cut  the  three  pieces  an  inch 
smaller  on  all  sides  than  the  cold  cham- 
ber to  permit  free  circulation  of  air.  Dip 
the  pad  in  cold  water  before  placing  it 
on  the  ice.  As  soon  as  the  pad  becomes 
damp  from  contact  with  the  ice  it  throws 
out  a  blast  of  cold  air  which  completely 
envelops  the  ice  and  makes  it  last  much 
longer.  The  felt  can  be  bought  at  a  har- 
ness-maker's and  the  wire  at  any  hard- 
ware store.  The  expense  is  trifling,  and 
with  good  care  the  pad  will  last  for  years. 
It  should  be  washed  twice  a  week  and 
sunned  so  that  it  does  not  become  slimy 
from  being  wet. 

Ice  may  be  preserved  also  by  fasten- 
ing two  sheets  of  cotton-batting  between 
brown  paper  covers.  Place  under  and 
over  and  around  the  sides.  This  keeps 
the  ice,  but  encloses  it  so  thoroughly 
that  it  does  not  cool  the  food  chamber  as 
well  as  the  felting  pad.  A  cover  for  a 


182     THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

pitcher,  like  a  tea  cozy,  that  will  com- 
pletely enclose  it,  may  be  made  of  the 
cotton  and  brown  paper,  and  the  water 
or  other  fluid  will  remain  cool  a  long 
time  and  the  ice  unmelted  for  hours.  It 
is  better  as  the  cozy  over  a  dish  than  as  a 
pad  for  the  ice  chamber,  but  it  is  men- 
tioned because  it  has  merit  and  the  first 
cost  is  less  than  that  of  the  pad  of  felt 
and  wire.  In  the  long  run  it  is  more 
expensive,  as  the  cotton  pad  is  good  only 
for  the  short  time  until  it  is  flattened  by 
the  water  and  the  paper  is  in  bits,  while 
the  felt  pad  will  last  more  than  one 
season. 

No  one  with  any  idea  of  thrift  will 
leave  ice  standing  by  the  door  steadily 
melting  in  the  hot  air,  thereby  melting 
the  money  you  have  to  pay  for  it.  Rinse 
it  at  once  and  place  in  the  chamber,  cov- 
ering it  to  keep  it  cool.  If  you  take  ice 
and  yet  wish  to  economize  on  it,  never  let 
your  ice  chamber  get  empty.  Keep  it 


COAL  AND  ICE  183 

full.  It  wastes  less  beside  supplying  more 
coolness.  You  do  not  get  as  much  for 
your  money  with  a  ten-cent  piece  two 
days  in  succession  as  you  do  with  twenty 
cents'  worth  every  other  day,  though  the 
actual  outlay  is  the  same.  If  you  take 
larger  pieces  you  will  not  need  as  many 
of  them  nor  as  much  ice.  Little  pieces 
are  wasteful  because  they  so  soon  melt 
and  leave  the  ice  chamber  getting  warm 
again  to  melt  the  ice  as  soon  as  it  touches 
the  sides.  Once  filled,  and  the  refrigera- 
tor well  chilled,  it  can  be  kept  thoroughly 
cool  by  small  renewals  and  the  box  never 
allowed  to  become  empty.  Open  the  box 
once  in  a  while  to  renew  the  air  which 
becomes  stale  if  unchanged. 

If  you  find  a  hole  in  the  ice-pan  or  the 
bottom  of  the  refrigerator  you  can  make 
it  water-proof  by  a  temporary  mending 
with  little  labor  and  expense,  but  it  will 
not  be  any  protection  against  hot  things. 
You  do  not  put  hot  dishes  in  your  refrig- 


184     THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

erator  probably,  at  least  you  should  not, 
so  you  can  try  this  plan  of  mending  it. 
Hold  a  paper  under  the  hole.  Melt  par- 
affine,  and  while  it  is  hot  pour  a  coating 
over  the  hole,  letting  the  paraffine  run 
some  inches  beyond  the  hole.  Some  of 
the  paraffine  will  run  through  the  holes, 
which  explains  why  the  paper  is  held 
under.  Make  the  coating  of  paraffine 
quite  thick.  Scrape  off  the  part  that  ran 
through,  as  it  is  as  good  to  use  again. 
This  repair  work  will  serve  as  well  for 
the  purpose  named  as  a  piece  of  zinc 
soldered  on,  but  will  not  last  as  long. 


CHAPTER  XII 
POSSIBILITIES  OF  CORN  MEAL 


CHAPTER  XII 

POSSIBILITIES  OF  CORN  MEAL 

NEW  ENGLAND  owes  its  life  to  corn,  for 
had  its  daily  bread  depended  upon  wheat 
in  the  early  days  when  Puritans  and  Pil- 
grims were  fighting  their  grim  fight  for 
existence  there  would  have  been  no  New 
England.  Why  may  not  these  days  of 
scarcity  of  wheat  flour  find  profit  from 
those  when  corn  was  the  basis  of  bread 
food  ?  No  system  of  thrift  goes  far  that 
does  not  recognize  the  benefits  and  econ- 
omy of  corn  in  the  diet.  Financially  and 
hygienically  corn  deserves  the  old  Indian 
name,  "  the  friend  of  man." 

Man  might  live  many  years  on  no 
other  foods  than  corn  and  its  products, 
which  include  oil,  sugar,  and  molasses  as 
well  as  meal.  The  yearly  production  of 

corn  in  this  country  is  three  times  that 
187 


188     THKIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

of  wheat,  and  the  food  value  is  greater 
than  that. 

Let  your  thrift  begin  with  the  greater 
use  of  corn  meal  to  help  out  the  contents 
of  the  flour  barrel.  Based  on  food  value, 
corn  is  the  leader  in  food,  and  at  five 
cents  a  pound  it  is  one  of  the  cheapest  in 
money.  Whether  served  as  hulled  corn, 
hominy,  grits,  or  some  arrangement  of 
meal,  it  is  very  nutritious  and  pleasant  to 
the  taste.  When  properly  cooked  it  is 
easily  digested,  and  its  food  value  is  ren- 
dered better  for  food  by  having  bulk,  as 
foods  that  do  not  have  bulk  are  injurious 
to  the  system,  which  is  so  made  that  it 
must  have  something  beside  concentrated 
nourishment. 

Corn  meal  at  the  time  of  writing  this 
is  five  cents  a  pound  ;  this  amount  of 
meal  contains  as  much  of  food  as  ninety- 
one  cents'  worth  of  eggs  at  fifty  cents  a 
dozen,  and  fifty-six  cents'  worth  of  round 
steak  at  thirty  cents  a  pound.  Consider- 


POSSIBILITIES  OF  CORN  MEAL    189 

ing  these  prices  you  will  conclude  that 
the  high  cost  of  living  can  be  dealt  an 
effective  blow  by  taking  corn  meal  for  a 
weapon.  It  is  an  energy-making  food. 

Variety  may  be  given  to  dishes  of  corn 
meal  by  adding  dried  or  fresh  fruits. 
The  old  time  baked  Indian  pudding 
served  by  our  grandmothers  was  one  of 
the  best  of  the  corn-meal  dishes.  When 
there  was  not  much  else  it  was  a  dinner 
dish,  and  often  it  was  the  main  dish  at 
supper.  It  cannot  be  baked  as  it  should 
be  in  a  gas  range  because  it  needs  slow 
cooking,  and  if  baked  in  a  gas-range  oven 
it  would  not  be  an  example  of  thrift,  but  it 
may  be  baked  well  in  the  fireless  cooker. 
Here  is  a  recipe  for  Indian  pudding  which 
is  three  generations  old,  and  perhaps  more. 
Heat  a  quart  of  milk  and  with  it  scald 
five  tablespoonfuls  of  corn  meal,  stirring 
all  the  time.  To  these  add  one  cup  of 
molasses  and  a  good-sized  piece  of  butter, 
and  bake  in  a  deep  dish  for  three  hours 


190     THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

or  more  with  moderate  heat.  Stir  several 
times  when  first  set  to  baking  to  keep 
meal  from  settling.  This  was  varied  by 
the  addition  of  peeled  and  quartered 
apples,  was  baked  in  au  earthenware  deep 
dish  until  it  was  a  beautiful  reddish  brown 
that  when  turned  out  would  stand  quiv- 
ering like  a  mold  of  jelly.  It  is  the  slow 
baking  that  produces  such  a  result  as 
that. 

Such  a  pudding  is  all  that  any  ordinary 
individual  would  need  for  a  luncheon  or 
supper,  and  is  entirely  too  heavy  for  a  des- 
sert. As  a  one-dish  meal  it  is  delicious. 
It  is  to  be  eaten  with  cream. 

Corn  meal  should  have  for  cook  one 
who  likes  it  and  is  mistress  over  it,  then 
from  it  such  food  will  be  made  as  will 
delight  the  appetite  and  preserve  the 
health  of  the  pocket-book. 

Corn  provides  either  alone  or  in  com- 
bination with  meat,  milk,  fish,  or  eggs,  a 
one-dish  meal  which  gives  all  the  mate- 


POSSIBILITIES  OF  CORN  MEAL    191 

rial  the  system  requires  at  a  meal  of  tissue- 
builders,  starch,  sugar,  and  fat.  The  fuel 
value  or  energy  of  corn  meal  to  a  pound 
is  1,795  calories,  and  in  this  respect  corn 
stands  above  the  other  known  cereals. 
The  percentage  of  fat  is  greater  than  in 
other  grains. 

The  simplest  preparation  of  corn  is 
hasty  pudding,  or  mush,  which  is  merely 
the  meal  dropped  into  boiling  and  salted 
water.  With  milk  it  forms  a  balanced 
dish,  that  is,  it  gives  in  proper  proportion 
those  chemical  essentials  which  feed  all 
parts  of  the  body  equally.  It  was  the 
standard  breakfast  or  supper  dish  of 
workers  of  two  generations  ago,  and 
should  be  served  occasionally  by  all  those 
who  want  to  make  their  money  go  to  its 
full  limit  without  taking  proper  suste- 
nance from  the  family.  The  mush  of  old 
days  was  cooked  all  day,  and  was  almost 
jellied  when  dished.  All  cereals  are 
wholesomer  for  long-time  cooking. 


192     THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

After  the  meal  was  stirred  with  a 
wooden,  long-handled  spoon  until  there 
were  no  lumps,  it  was  set  back  on  the 
stove  to  simmer  all  day,  and  it  tasted  like 
a  different  dish  from  the  quickly  made 
mush.  After  one  meal  as  mush  it  was 
turned  into  a  deep  pan  to  cool.  In  the 
morning  this  was  sliced  and  fried,  and 
eaten  with  maple  sirup,  it  was,  and  is,  a 
food  to  be  served  in  every  family.  The 
old  way  of  frying  was  in  shallow  fat,  but 
the  modern  way  is  to  drop  it  in  deep  fat 
which  is  the  less  wasteful  method.  The 
Italians  use  mush  with  cheese  and  have 
a  very  nourishing  food ;  as  a  meal  it  is 
better  for  having  the  addition  of  a  green 
salad.  The  natives  of  Jamaica  combine 
fish,  lard,  and  corn  meal.  Note  how  these 
give  the  essentials  of  nutrition. 

There  is  in  Pennsylvania  an  organiza- 
tion of  individuals,  who  once  a  year 
meet  to  eat  scrapple  and  apple  butter. 
Scrapple  is  a  combination  of  meat  and 


POSSIBILITIES  OF  COKN  MEAL    193 

corn  meal,  usually  spiced.  Any  kind  of 
meat  may  be  served  in  this  way,  but  it  is 
commonly  pork.  The  mush  is  made  in 
the  proportion  of  one  cup  of  meal  to 
three  and  a  half  cups  of  water.  It  is  al- 
ways made  and  cooled  in  a  pan  like  a 
bread-pan,  then  fried  for  breakfast.  No 
extra  fat  is  necessary. 

Remains  of  fish  from  the  day's  dinner 
may  be  converted  into  fish-cakes  by  mix- 
ing with  corn-meal  mush  in  proportion 
of  two  cups  of  meal  to  one  of  fish,  all  held 
together  by  an  egg.  Season  to  taste. 
Bits  of  green  peppers  may  be  added  if 
you  like  the  flavor,  or  a  few  drops  of 
onion  juice. 

Corn  mush  is  very  good  with  cheese 
for  an  addition,  like  the  Italian  polenta, 
and  becomes  a  very  hearty  food.  The  sole 
accompaniment  to  these  dishes  of  corn 
meal  and  meat,  fish,  or  cheese  is  a  green 
salad  or  tart  fruits.  Apples  as  sauce,  salad, 
or  baked  are  an  appropriate  side  dish. 


194     THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

Apples  are  sometimes  added  to  brown 
bread  in  small  quantities.  A  cup  of  rai- 
sins to  a  loaf,  or  a  cup  of  dates,  pitted 
and  quartered,  are  an  improvement  to 
brown  bread,  which  of  itself  is  a  very 
satisfying  meal,  with  butter.  The  fol- 
lowing recipe  for  brown  bread  has  passed 
from  mother  to  daughter  for  four  gener- 
ations, and  may  be  depended  upon.  One 
cup  of  corn  meal,  one  of  flour,  one-half 
cup  molasses,  one  of  sour  milk  or  water, 
teaspoonful  of  soda,  one-half  teaspoonful 
of  salt.  Steam  three  hours,  with  water 
boiling  the  first  hour  very  fast,  and  do 
not  let  the  water  stop  boiling,  as  if  it 
does  the  bread  will  be  heavy. 

The  Department  of  Agriculture  supplies 
a  bulletin  on  Uses  of  Corn  Meal,  to  be  had 
for  the  asking.  It  should  be  in  every 
household,  and  followed  by  the  home 
cook. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

MEAT  AND  MEAT  SUBSTI- 
TUTES 


CHAPTER  XIII 
MEAT  AJSTD  MEAT  SUBSTITUTES 

IF  every  family  does  without  meat  two 
days  a  week  there  will  be  a  perceptible 
difference  in  the  supply  of  meat  in  the 
market,  and  if  no  regulation  is  made 
obliging  every  one  to  go  without  on  the 
same  days,  there  will  be  no  crowding  of 
the  markets  some  days  and  a  correspond- 
ing lack  on  others.  To  go  without  meat 
is  no  hardship  after  one  gets  into  the 
habit,  and  thousands  live  healthfully  and 
contentedly  without  any  meat  day  after 
day.  They  feel  better  without  it.  Eat- 
ing is  largely  a  matter  of  habit,  in 
amount  and  in  kind. 

One  of  the  largest  sanitariums  in  the 
country  is  conducted  without  meat, 
neither  officers  nor  patients  ever  eating 

flesh  food,  and  there  is  no  loss  of  energy 
197 


198     THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

from  such  abstinence.  Meat  is  a  stimu- 
lant, and  only  outdoor  workers  should 
eat  it  oftener  than  once  a  day.  Auto- 
intoxication is  caused  by  excessive  meat- 
eating. 

However,  in  spite  of  these  facts  most 
of  the  world  will  continue  to  crave  the 
"  flesh-pots  of  Egypt,"  and  to  desire  to 
know  how  to  make  a  little  serve  as  more. 
Every  housewife  knows  how  hard  it  is  in 
her  small  family  to  buy  roasts  to  advan- 
tage and  to  use  trimmings  and  bones.  In- 
stead of  trying  to  use  them  before  they 
spoil,  can  them.  They  may  be  canned  as 
stock  or  as  soup,  and  all  the  meat  that 
one  does  not  wish  to  eat  can  be  canned  by 
itself. 

Simmer  the  bones  for  so  long  that  every 
bit  of  meat  will  come  off  with  scraping. 
Put  them  on  with  cold  water  and  simmer 
so  slowly  that  no  rim  of  hardened  albu- 
men is  around  the  top.  Remove  all  the 
meat  from  bones,  strain,  and  place  the 


MEAT  AND  MEAT  SUBSTITUTES    199 

plain  broth  in  jars,  or  to  the  stock  add 
diced  vegetables  as  for  making  vegetable 
soup,  season,  and  sterilize  as  you  do  for 
other  things  you  preserve  in  this  manner. 
The  principle  of  canning  and  the  general 
process  of  canning  are  precisely  the  same, 
varying  only  in  such  minor  details  as 
sugar  or  no  sugar,  and  so  on. 

The  beef  that  has  boiled  from  the  bones 
may  be  seasoned  and  made  into  meat- 
balls, to  be  cooked  in  bacon  fat,  which 
will  add  to  its  flavor.  It  has  lost  through 
simmering  most  of  what  flavor  it  had. 
It  may  be  made  into  a  nice  baked  hash 
with  rice,  potato,  or  such  bread  crumbs 
as  one  has,  and  a  bit  of  onion  and  good 
seasoning. 

The  extra  meat  that  has  been  cooked 
only  once  you  can  pack  into  jars,  cutting 
the  meat  into  bits  so  it  will  fit  into  the 
glass  closely  and  be  more  open  to  the 
heat  of  sterilizing.  Turn  enough  water 
into  the  jars  to  fill  the  interstices,  and 


200     THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

then  boil  with  the  top  on,  but  not  fastened 
down,  until  the  middle  pieces  are  thor- 
oughly heated.  Meat  must  cook  a  con- 
siderable time  because  the  heat  takes  an 
hour  or  so  to  penetrate  the  inner  pieces. 
Then,  before  removing  from  the  boiling 
water,  snap  down  the  cover,  and  let  the 
meat  cool  in  the  boiling  water,  as  the 
water  cools.  Probably  there  will  be  some 
fat  on  the  top.  This  is  a  preservative  in 
itself.  Beef,  mutton,  lamb,  and  veal  have 
been  canned  in  this  way  and  I  have  never 
lost  ajar.  I  do  chicken  or  turkey  in  the 
same  manner  if  there  is  any  to  do.  There 
is  every  probability  that  the  price  of  meat 
will  go  higher  rather  than  lessen,  and 
housewives  do  well  to  get  into  the  can- 
ning habit,  which  is  true  thrift, — making 
the  best  and  most  of  what  they  have. 

If  you  have  no  ice  and  fear  that  meat 
will  not  keep,  place  it  out-of-doors  in  a 
cool  place  so  that  the  air  can  get  at  all 
sides  of  it.  On  the  continent  before  the 


MEAT  AND  MEAT  SUBSTITUTES    201 

War,  many  butchers  had  shops  without 
ice.  Sides  of  beef  and  pork  hung  by 
great  hooks  from  the  ceiling  and  all 
around  them  the  air  circulated  day  and 
night.  At  night  it  entered  the  shops 
through  wrought-iron  doors  so  that  no 
stale  air  was  retained  in  the  shop,  and 
the  meat  was  as  fresh  and  sweet  as  in  any 
of  the  shops  with  which  we  are  more  fa- 
miliar. 

Here  is  a  recipe  for  keeping  meat  that 
has  been  recommended  by  campers  as  re- 
liable. Cover  each  piece  of  meat,  chops, 
or  roast  with  corn  meal  or  oatmeal  so 
thickly  that  it  cannot  come  in  contact 
with  any  other  substance,  and  place  in  a 
current  of  air  as  cool  as  can  be  found. 
Do  not  wrap  in  paper,  which  will  soon 
spoil  meat  under  the  best  of  conditions. 
I  have  been  told  that  steak  has  been 
kept  a  fortnight  in  moderate  weather  and 
longer  in  cold,  with  no  other  protection 
than  the  wrapping  of  meal. 


202     THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

Once  a  delicious  and  expensive  porter- 
house when  removed  from  the  refrigera- 
tor indicated  very  unmistakably  that  it 
should  have  been  cooked  a  day  earlier. 
What  was  to  be  done?  One  does  not 
willingly  throw  away  such  costly  meat, 
and  it  seemed  to  be  hopeless.  This  is 
what  was  done.  The  meat  was  scraped 
with  a  sharp  knife  until  every  sign  of 
badness  was  removed  from  top,  bottom, 
and  fat.  Then  it  smelled  right,  but  to 
make  certain,  the  meat  was  washed  with 
saleratus  water,  and  left  in  the  water  for 
ten  minutes,  and  then  wiped  dry  with 
cheese-cloth.  Then  it  was  wiped  again 
with  a  clean  dry  cloth,  and  broiled.  It 
was  as  sweet  as  ever  it  was,  and  very 
tender.  This  process  is  to  be  advised  in 
every  case  when  one  has  a  doubt  of  the 
freshness  of  meat. 

To  preserve  a  ham,  put  it  into  a  flour- 
sack,  tie,  and  pack  in  a  box  of  wood  ashes. 
The  lye  that  probably  is  in  them  will 


MEAT  AND  MEAT  SUBSTITUTES    203 

keep  it  as  sweet  as  you  want  it.  For  a 
ham  that  is  to  be  used  right  along,  keep 
in  the  flour-sack  tied  closely,  and  hang 
from  hook  in  ceiling.  A  current  of  air 
is  a  preservative. 

When  you  have  not  enough  meat  to 
make  a  dish  of  itself,  use  it  as  a  flavor- 
ing. Take  the  odd  ends  of  salt  pork  and 
bacon  that  are  left  after  slicing  and  add 
them  to  peas  or  beans  for  soup.  Or  take 
them  and  add  to  a  batter  and  bake  as 
meat  biscuits,  or  place  a  layer  of  rice, 
crumbs,  or  mashed  potatoes,  whichever 
you  have,  at  the  bottom  of  cups,  and  over 
that  a  layer  of  the  minced  meat,  another 
layer  like  the  first,  wet  it  with  water, 
stock,  gravy,  or  tomato,  whatever  you 
have,  and  you  will  find  the  result  when 
the  contents  of  the  cups  are  baked  a 
very  nice  supper  or  breakfast  dish.  Use 
the  bits  of  meat  with  greens  or  grind  them 
and  serve,  dressed  with  a  thick  dressing, 
as  salad  or  as  filling  for  sandwiches. 


204     THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

Bacon  rind  fried  out  often  returns  a 
considerable  amount  of  fat.  Bits  of 
bacon  cooked  or  uncooked  combine 
well  with  chicken,  and  a  hash  of  bits 
of  chicken,  bacon,  and  potato  is  good 
enough  for  an  epicure.  Put  all  frag- 
ments of  meat  through  the  meat-grinder. 
Different  meats  may  be  used  together. 
Add  a  little  to  a  macaroni  and  tomato 
escallop.  Even  a  tablespoonful  will  im- 
prove it.  So  will  one  sausage  that  you 
may  have  considered  worthless.  A 
spoonful  of  meat  will  improve  a  dish 
of  hashed-brown  potatoes  or  nearly  any 
starchy  food.  It  is  not  necessary  to  have 
enough  meat  for  the  combination  to  be- 
come a  hash.  Stuff  tomatoes  or  green 
peppers  with  a  bread-crumb  dressing 
to  which  you  have  added  even  a  very 
little  bacon  or  ham,  or  any  other  meat. 
Meats  of  high  flavor  such  as  bacon, 
ham,  and  sausage  add  piquancy  to  more 
tasteless  meats.  These  meats  may  be 


MEAT  AND  MEAT  SUBSTITUTES    205 

added  to  a  thick  white  or  brown  sauce, 
seasoned  with  mustard,  and  served  very 
hot  on  toast.  For  sandwiches,  add  a 
little  chopped  pickle  and  dress  with 
thick  boiled  dressing  or  mayonnaise. 
The  result  is  not  much  like  the  ordinary 
sandwich  with  a  slab  of  meat  between 
slices  of  bread. 

Have  you  a  cupful  of  minced  meat  you 
do  not  know  what  to  do  with  ?  Beside 
the  ways  to  use  it  that  have  already  been 
mentioned  try  this.  Mix  it  with  three 
good-sized  mashed  potatoes  or  the  same 
amount  in  cold  boiled  rice.  Add  three 
well-beaten  eggs,  season  and  cook  like  an 
omelet,  or  bake  in  oven.  Omelets  may 
have  a  flavor  from  a  spoonful  of  meat, 
and  a  slice  of  left-over  liver  cut  in  small 
pieces  is  very  good.  Any  left-over  meat 
may  be  potted  by  being  rubbed  smooth 
with  butter  or  salad  oil,  seasoning  well 
with  mustard,  salt,  and  cayenne  or 
paprika.  Ham  thus  treated  is  good 


206     THKIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

enough  to  be  prepared  without  any 
thought  of  saving.  Meats  potted  will 
keep  for  some  time  in  a  cool  place. 

If  you  try  to  practise  thrift  by  buying 
the  cheaper  cuts  of  meat  there  are  two 
difficulties  you  are  quite  likely  to  meet. 
In  the  first  place,  you  may  not  be  able  to 
find  them,  or  any  store  that  has  shank 
of  beef,  flank,  or  such  pieces.  If  the 
seller  can  dispose  of  the  higher-priced 
cuts  why  should  he  take  space  for  the 
lower-priced  ?  That  is  the  question  once 
asked  me.  Many  dealers  do  not  intend 
to  carry  low-priced  grades  of  meats.  If 
they  do  not  have  them,  generally  the 
would-be  buyer  contents  herself  by  get- 
ting the  cuts  she  did  not  intend  to  buy, 
and  the  seller  is  that  much  ahead. 

If  you  have  been  fortunate  enough  to 
buy  as  your  good  intentions  prompted, 
perhaps  you  will  feel  that  you  were 
really  a  loser  because  the  meat  was  tough 
and  tasteless.  That  gives  you  your 


MEAT  AND  MEAT  SUBSTITUTES    207 

chance  to  show  what  good  cooking  will 
do.  Long,  slow  cooking  will  make  the 
toughest  meat  tender,  and  proper  season- 
ing will  give  it  savor.  If  to  tough  meat 
is  added  a  spoonful  of  vinegar,  or  lemon 
juice,  or  if  it  is  cooked  with  tomato  it 
will  become  tender.  The  acid  softens 
the  fibre.  I  often  add  a  spoonful  of  vin- 
egar to  the  water  in  which  I  cook  a  fowl 
if  it  promises  not  to  be  tender. 

To  make  meat  savory  let  it  lie  over- 
night in  a  dressing  of  oil,  vinegar,  pap- 
rika, or  onion  juice,  basting  with  the 
dressing,  and  the  most  tasteless  meat 
will  have  a  choice  flavor  and  become 
tender.  Never  add  salt  to  uncooked 
meat,  as  it  toughens  even  tender  meat. 
If  you  do  not  care  to  give  the  meat  the 
bath  of  flavoring,  season  with  herbs,  or 
curry,  but  do  not  use  the  same  flavoring 
every  time.  You  can  take  the  same  cut 
and  by  varying  the  seasonings  produce 
quite  different  results  from  it.  A  taste- 


208     THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

less  meat  is  changed  and  made  appetizing 
by  two  or  three  strips  of  bacon  added 
as  basting  for  a  roast  when  cooking. 

An  inexpensive  English  dish  is  lamb's 
heart  stuffed  with  sage  and  onion.  A 
heart  is  allowed  for  a  person.  They  cost 
five  cents  apiece  a  short  time  ago.  Each 
heart  is  carefully  washed  and  trimmed. 
Then  they  are  parboiled  in  hot  water  to 
which  is  added  a  spoonful  of  vinegar. 
After  this  they  are  stuffed  with  bread 
crumbs,  to  which  onions  and  sage  are 
added  generously,  with  salt  and  pepper 
as  liked.  They  are  baked,  base  of  heart 
down,  and  around  the  tiny  pyramids 
may  be  placed  the  potatoes  to  bake  in 
the  pan.  Baste  often  with  water  in 
which  is  a  little  fat.  Baste  potatoes  as 
well  as  hearts,  and  they  will  become  a 
beautiful  brown.  When  hearts  and  po- 
tatoes are  done,  remove  from  the  bake- 
pan  and  thicken  the  water  with  browned 
flour  for  gravy  and  you  have  the  founda- 


MEAT  AND  MEAT  SUBSTITUTES    209 

tion  of  a  nourishing  and  appetizing  meal 
at  small  cost. 

From  a  shin-bone,  which  is  another 
inexpensive  piece  of  meat,  you  may  get 
a  good  deal  at  comparatively  small  cost. 
See  that  it  has  meat  on  it  when  you  buy 
it.  You  can  use  the  edge  or  aitchbone 
in  the  same  way.  Have  the  bone  cracked, 
then  put  it  to  soak  as  for  soup.  Use  cold 
water,  let  it  come  to  the  boiling  point  and 
then  simmer.  No  meat  should  boil. 
Season  with  an  onion,  a  clove,  pepper 
and  salt,  and  the  ground  celery  tips  you 
have  dried.  Use  a  tablespoonful  to  two 
quarts  of  water.  When  the  soup  has 
cooked  down  one-quarter,  remove  onion 
arid  meat  and  thicken  the  water  with 
flour  wet  with  cold  water  and  stirred 
smooth.  Be  sure  it  is  smooth  or  there 
will  be  lumps  in  the  soup.  Serve  the 
soup  with  cubes  of  stale  bread  toasted. 
This  gives  one  dish  from  the  bone. 

Take  every  bit  of  meat  from  the  bone 


210     THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

and  chop  fine.  Add  to  it  a  tablespoonful 
of  crumbs,  or  as  much  more  as  the  meat 
needs  to  take  up  the  moisture.  Season 
with  onion,  pepper  and  salt  if  needed,  or 
with  powdered  poultry  dressing.  It  is  a 
combination  of  sage,  thyme,  marjoram 
and  other  flavors,  and  is  much  better 
than  most  cooks  can  prepare.  Mix  an 
egg  into  this  and  shape  into  balls. 
Brown  in  hot  fat.  Serve  with  tomato 
sauce  if  you  wish  them  to  be  somewhat 
the  nicer.  The  recipe  for  this  is  omitted 
as  it  is  in  all  cook-books.  Serve  with 
this  arrangement  of  meat  any  vegetable 
you  fancy,  and  with  a  simple  dessert  you 
have  a  three-course  dinner  that  has  cost 
you  little  and  is  good  enough  to  eat. 
You  will  be  surprised  to  find  how  little 
your  dinner  will  have  cost  you. 

Another  meat  dish  from  the  shin  is 
spiced  beef.  Get  quite  a  large  weight, 
and  have  considerable  bone,  as  the  gela- 
tine in  it  helps  to  make  this  dish  better, 


MEAT  AND  MEAT  SUBSTITUTES    211 

Have  the  bone  well  cracked.  Put  it  to 
cook  as  directed  above.  Simmer  until 
the  meat  can  be  pulled  from  the  bone 
with  a  fork.  Take  from  the  water  and 
remove  all  meat,  chop  it  and  the  gristle 
fine,  return  to  the  kettle  with  cloves,  all- 
spice, bay  leaf,  herbs,  mustard  seed,  and 
celery  seed.  Use  a  smaller  proportion  of 
the  pungent  spices  and  remember  that 
cooking  will  intensify  their  strength. 
The  meat  is  to  be  preserved  by  the  spices. 
Cook  the  liquid  down  until  very  little 
is  left.  Turn  the  meat  into  a  dish,  a 
bread-tin  is  good,  and  let  it  stand  until 
very  cold.  Slice  and  serve  cold  for  sup- 
per or  luncheon.  Were  this  made  of 
pork  it  would  be  the  hog's-head  cheese 
that  our  grandmothers  kept  regularly  as 
part  of  the  preparation  for  winter.  If 
kept  cool,  it  will  keep  a  long  time,  thanks 
to  the  spices,  or  it  may  be  put  into  a 
wide-mouthed  crock,  sterilized,  covered 
with  melted  lard,  and  be  kept  indefi- 


212     THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

nitely.  Melted  lard  being  somewhat  ex- 
pensive, you  may  substitute  hot  paraffine 
if  you  prefer.  If  this  cheese  is  made  in 
large  quantity,  it  is  better  to  prepare  it 
for  winter,  but  five  pounds  of  the  bone 
and  meat  will  make  a  convenient  dish 
to  keep  on  hand  in  summer  or  winter. 
You  can  make  up  twenty  pounds  for 
winter. 

The  many  ways  in  which  you  can  vary 
your  meat  dishes  number  into  the  hun- 
dreds, and  would  make  a  fair-sized  cook- 
book of  themselves.  If  you  wish  to  know 
more  of  them,  experiment  for  yourself. 
The  sole  limitation  on  them  is  that  the 
result  shall  taste  "  like  more."  Use  your 
meat  with  rice,  macaroni,  potatoes,  or 
other  starches,  with  onions,  carrots,  beans, 
peas,  turnips,  tomatoes,  and  with  combi- 
nations of  these.  You  can  scarcely  fail 
to  produce  something  good.  Do  not  al- 
ways work  your  ingredients  into  the 
same  old  stew.  A  good  stew  is  a  very 


MEAT  AND  MEAT  SUBSTITUTES    213 

good  thing,  but  nothing  is  good  if  one 
has  a  chance  to  get  tired  of  it. 

Boil  sometimes,  steam,  broil,  fry,  and 
roast.  Do  not  let  anything  come  out 
greasy.  It  spoils  the  article  and  wastes 
a  very  important  food  product.  A  salad 
may  be  compounded  occasionally,  alone 
or  with  a  vegetable,  a  very  small  amount 
of  meat  may  be  used  for  a  hot  sandwich 
if  added  to  brown  sauce,  and  by  trying 
you  will  find  yourself  becoming  more 
and  more  clever  each  month.  It  is  very 
interesting  to  use  your  mind  this  way. 
It  is  also  very  profitable.  Whatever  you 
compound,  you  will  have  it  good  if  it  is 
not  greasy  and  is  well  seasoned.  "  Well  " 
does  not  mean  highly,  but  to  the  proper 
taste. 

The  art  of  seasoning  is  that  which 
makes  French  and  Belgian  cooks  excel. 
The  foundation  materials  are  never  bet- 
ter than  what  you  have.  Taine,  himself 
a  Frenchman  who  knew  good  cooking, 


THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

wrote,  "  The  table  d'hotes  of  Belgium  are 
the  best  in  the  world."  They  are  made 
so  by  the  skill  in  seasoning.  If  you  wish 
to  equal  their  cooks,  provide  yourself 
with  all  the  flavorings  of  which  you  hear 
and  use  them  to  give  variety,  not  all  at 
the  same  time.  Do  not  scorn  the  effect 
of  a  single  clove,  or  think  it  is  too  little 
to  give  a  place.  Try  a  bit  of  bay  leaf — 
gather  your  bay  while  you  are  at  the 
seashore  and  dry  it  for  flavoring — and 
use  it  a  little  at  a  time.  A  well-flavored 
dish  never  has  a  strong  taste  of  any  one 
thing  but  a  pleasant  blending  of  many 
little  things. 

Thrift  does  not  buy  anything  merely 
because  it  is  cheap.  One  may  have  to 
buy  that  way  or  not  buy  at  all,  but  thrift 
buys  low-priced  cuts  and  then  makes 
them  taste  so  good  that  one  thinks  them 
to  have  been  high  cost.  If  one  has  to 
throw  away  meat  she  has  bought  at 
a  low  price  because  it  is  unappetizing 


MEAT  AND  MEAT  SUBSTITUTES    215 

there  is  no  thrift  in  it.  There  is  no  need 
for  it. 

The  ragouts  of  the  French  are  what  we 
prepare  from  left-overs  but  they  are  not 
served  as  any  makeshift  but  as  something 
really  good,  and  they  are.  So  may  be 
your  dish  from  flank,  or  shin,  or  neck, 
or  any  tough  bit.  You  will  have  a  pride 
in  developing  your  talent  for  making  good 
things  at  low  cost  that  you  never  had  in 
any  other  accomplishment,  and  you  will 
have  a  happy  home.  The  woman  who 
is  a  good  and  economical  cook  usually 
has  a  home  one  likes  to  stay  in. 

You  will  find  it  a  pleasant  change  from 
meat  to  have  fish  twice  a  week,  and  some- 
what more  profitable  in  money.  It  is  by 
no  means  a  poor  exchange.  From  fish 
you  may  have  soup,  chowder,  stew,  bake, 
roast,  fry,  boil,  broil,  salad,  escallop,  fish- 
cakes, fish-pie,  fish-pudding,  and  hash. 
Any  article  that  offers  such  a  range  is 
worth  your  consideration.  Freshen  salt 


216     THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

fish  in  sour  milk,  laying  the  fish  back  up 
in  the  dish.  Some  fish  are  comparatively 
tasteless,  and  to  such  you  may  give  flavor 
by  leaving  in  the  bath  of  lemon  juice  or 
vinegar  with  onion  or  other  seasoning, 
with  or  without  oil  according  to  the  na- 
ture of  the  fish,  if  it  is  dry  flesh  or  fat. 
Or  you  can  give  flavor  to  your  fish  after 
it  is  cooked  by  serving  with  sauce  tartare, 
a  mayonnaise  to  which  is  added  enough 
mustard  and  paprika  with  a  bit  of  minced 
pickle  to  bite  the  tongue.  Or  you  have 
the  choice  of  several  other  sauces. 

It  is  a  good  plan  to  serve  with  fish  such 
vegetables  as  have  a  distinct  flavor,  as 
peppers,  cucumbers,  cabbage  salad,  beets, 
carrots,  and  onions.  A  boiled  fish  is  dis- 
tinctly a  different  dish  if  the  water  in 
which  it  cooks  has  in  it  a  little  celery 
seed  or  dried  and  ground  celery  tops,  a 
clove  and  a  peppercorn  or  two.  A  dry 
fish,  one  with  little  natural  oil,  should  be 
baked  with  slices  of  bacon  to  baste  it,  or 


MEAT  AND  MEAT  SUBSTITUTES    217 

slices  of  fat  pork,  which  are  equally  good, 
and  cheaper. 

Massachusetts  would  scarcely  have 
come  to  its  present  estate  if  in  earlier 
days  it  had  not  been  held  by  the  cod  dig- 
nified now  in  that  State  as  "  The  sacred 
codfish. "  What  it  was  to  the  earlier  set- 
tlers of  Plymouth  Bay  Colony  it  can  be 
to-day  to  others,  for  it  is  one  of  the  cheap- 
est and  best  of  fish,  either  fresh  or  salted. 
Fresh  cod  may  be  baked,  broiled,  or  fried, 
and  is  made  into  a  delicious  fish  chowder. 
A  fresh  cod  salted  to  stand  overnight,  in 
the  morning  wiped  free  from  salt,  placed 
on  a  bake-sheet,  put  into  hot  oven,  baked 
very  quickly,  and  dressed  with  butter  and 
slices  of  lemon  is  very  well  worth  eating. 
It  may  be  dressed  with  strips  of  bacon 
before  baking  if  one  wants  a  change  from 
butter. 

Small  fish  may  be  baked  in  a  bean-pot 
or  casserole  to  be  eaten  hot  or  cold  and 
will  be  good  for  a  long  time  if  kept  in  a 


218     THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

cool  place.  To  prepare  them,  place  a 
layer  of  cleaned  fish  on  the  bottom  of  the 
pot,  scatter  whole  cloves  over  the  top, 
mixed  with  peppercorns  and  mustard 
seed,  add  another  layer  of  fish,  and  then 
spice,  until  the  dish  is  filled.  Have 
spice  on  the  top,  and  use  discretion  in 
scattering  over  the  top  of  the  fishes. 
Cover  the  fish  with  a  mixture  of  vinegar 
and  water,  twice  as  much  vinegar  as 
water,  and  bake  slowly  until  the  liquid 
is  well  absorbed.  All  bones  will  be  so 
softened  by  the  acid  that  they  will  give 
no  trouble  to  the  eater.  This  is  a  satis- 
factory method  of  laying  by  any  extra 
fish.  Larger  fish  may  be  cut  in  sections 
and  treated  in  the  same  manner.  It  is  a 
good  thing  to  have  in  the  house  when 
emergencies  arise  and  one  cannot  go  to 
the  market.  Fish  may  be  potted  by  the 
rule  given  for  potting  meat,  but  bones 
must  be  removed  and  great  care  taken 
that  no  bits  of  bone  remain  in  the  paste. 


MEAT  AND  MEAT  SUBSTITUTES    219 

Left-over  fish  is  a  good  foundation  for 
a  salad,  or  it  may  be  warmed  up  in  an 
egg  sauce,  which  is  drawn  butter  or  white 
sauce  with  egg  added.  Egg  sauce  is  the 
proper  accompaniment  for  a  boiled  fish 
and  the  left-over  of  sauce  and  fish  may 
be  made  into  a  scallop  with  potato  or 
crumbs,  and  baked  until  brown.  The 
sauce  should  be  the  top.  If  it  is  a  little 
less  than  the  amount  needed,  you  can  fill 
up  with  milk.  The  effect  is  pleasing  if 
over  the  last  layer  of  sauce  you  spread  a 
few  fine  crumbs.  Everything  in  this 
being  cooked,  not  more  than  fifteen  min- 
utes in  a  hot  oven  will  be  required  for  its 
baking. 

"  I  don't  like  fish  "  will  not  be  heard 
in  your  family  if  you  know  how  to  cook 
it,  and  that  knowledge  is  a  part  of  thrift. 
Those  who  go  camping  near  the  ocean  or 
inland  lakes  find  that  fish  is  a  very  good 
thing  to  eat,  and  they  will  like  it  if  the 
cook  learns  how  to  prepare  it  so  that  it 


220     THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

has  flavor.  Bacon  is  an  excellent  fat  to 
use  in  nearly  all  ways  of  cooking  fish 
except  the  few  oily  kinds.  It  has  so 
distinct  a  flavor  that  it  improves  most. 
Salt  fat  pork  fried  crisp  was  a  favorite 
part  of  a  codfish  dinner  in  New  England 
before  its  people  became  so  prosperous 
that  they  ceased  to  economize.  The  fish 
was  stripped  into  bits  as  small  as  they 
could  be  pulled,  freshened  by  having 
boiling  water  poured  over  it  several 
times.  If  fish  stands  in  water  and  boils 
up  much  it  toughens,  but  if  soaked  or 
scalded  in  three  or  four  waters  it  is 
tender.  The  pork  was  cut  in  inch  pieces 
very  thin,  and  fried  out.  It  was  per- 
fectly crisp  and  the  fat  was  a  dressing  for 
the  fish  and  the  baked  potatoes  which 
went  with  the  dinner.  In  the  land  of 
the  codfish,  beets  and  carrots  always  are 
served  with  the  fish  and  potatoes. 

The  Fish  Commission  of  the  United 
States  has  done  a  wonderful  but  little- 


MEAT  AND  MEAT  SUBSTITUTES    221 

known  work  (so  far  as  the  public  is  con- 
cerned) in  introducing  new  fish  to  the 
people.  The  fish  supply  of  this  country 
is  enough  to  feed  the  inhabitants  for  a 
long  time  and  negatives  any  probability 
of  starvation  though  there  become  a 
greater  shortage  of  meat  than  is  at  all 
likely.  Not  only  have  new  varieties  of 
food  fish  been  discovered,  but  a  wide 
range  of  methods  of  cooking  them  have 
been  developed,  and  this  information  is 
practically  free  to  any  housewife  who 
wishes  it  enough  to  send  to  the  Fisheries 
Department  at  Washington  for  it.  At 
the  outside,  the  bulletins  will  not  cost 
over  five  or  ten  cents  and  they  give  care- 
ful directions  for  cooking  fish  in  many 
inviting  guises.  Eat  more  fish  and  the 
meat  problem  will  cease  to  be  a  problem. 
The  health  will  be  improved,  and  the 
pocket-book  will  have  something  always 
in  it,  if  you  want  it  to  have. 

Thrift    influences    you    to   make   the 


222     THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

most  of  the  possibilities  that  are  at  your 
hand,  and  you  want  to  make  sure  that 
you  are  doing  this  before  you  groan  too 
much  over  the  high  cost  of  living. 
Perhaps  that  bugbear  is  made  stronger 
by  lack  of  knowledge  how  to  use  what 
you  have.  In  the  days  when  the  cost 
of  living  was  lower  there  were  fewer 
kinds  of  foods  and  the  average  family 
ate  dishes  that  only  the  poorest  eat  now, 
codfish  for  instance  with  pork  scraps,  and 
stews  for  supper.  While  you  need  not 
do  that  to  be  thrifty,  you  will  find  you 
can  make  your  money  buy  to  better  ad- 
vantage by  knowing  more  about  foods, 
and  what  you  can  make  with  what  you 
can  command  of  materials  within  your 
financial  reach.  Learn  that  and  you  will 
become  past-mistress  of  thrift,  and  in- 
dependent. 

Try  a  Welsh  rabbit  some  time  for  the 
main  dish  of  a  luncheon.  It  is  much  more 
than  a  light  dish  for  a  pleasure  time.  It 


MEAT  AND  MEAT  SUBSTITUTES    223 

is  a  hearty  dish  and  a  valuable  meat  sub- 
stitute. You  should  not  serve  potatoes  or 
rice  with  it,  but  turn  it  on  toast,  and 
have  with  it  a  salad  of  green  vegetables. 
If  you  have  any  of  the  rabbit  left  do  not 
discard  it.  Spread  saltines  or  soda  crack- 
ers with  the  mixture,  brown  in  the  oven, 
cool,  and  wrap  in  waxed  paper  and  you 
will  have  excellent  cheese-crackers  that 
will  keep  as  well  as  those  bought  in  boxes, 
provided  they  are  hidden.  They  are 
rich  in  food  value  and  may  be  added  to 
a  meatless  meal.  Do  not  serve  any  other 
cheese  preparation  with  them. 

Peanuts  deserve  a  larger  place  in  the 
household  dietary.  There  is  enough 
nourishment  in  a  pint  of  peanuts  for  a 
meal  for  a  hearty,  out-of-doors  worker, 
and  if  eaten  with  some  less  concentrated 
food  might  be  chosen  once  in  a  while  in 
place  of  meat. 

Peanuts  may  be  cooked  very  much 
like  beans,  and  when  baked  are  very  good. 


224     THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

For  a  peanut  roast,  grind  the  nuts  very 
fine,  mix  with  bread  crumbs,  and  hold  to- 
gether with  beaten  egg.  Season  to  taste, 
and  bake  until  brown.  One  may  have 
peanut  soup,  peanut  roast,  peanut  salad, 
peanut  butter  sandwiches,  peanut  cakes, 
and  thus  have  a  peanut  meal  if  one 
chooses  it.  Brown  bread  is  much  the 
best  for  the  peanut-butter  sandwiches. 


CHAPTER  XIV 
DESSERTS 


CHAPTER  XIV 

DESSERTS 

I  COUNT  it  wise  to  have  desserts  for 
dinner  even  if  one  is  trying  to  save  to 
the  last  penny.  They  add  to  the  meal 
certain  elements  that  the  system  craves, 
and  which  are  well  supplied  as  dessert, 
and  they  make  a  pleasant  finish  to  the 
meaL  Where  children  are  they  help 
to  form  the  manners  of  the  well-bred 
individual,  and  if  the  only  dessert  is  a 
bread  and  sugar  sandwich,  served  on  a 
pretty  plate,  with  the  dishes  of  the  pre- 
vious course  removed,  it  has  helped  the 
child  toward  gracious  manner  to  have  it 
given  him.  Having  this  conviction,  I 
should  always  have  something  for  dessert, 
however  simple  it  might  be. 

As  a  rule,  desserts  should  be  very  light, 

227 


228     THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

but  this  may  vary  according  to  the  food 
of  the  earlier  part  of  the  meal.  In  the 
usual  household  there  are  only  two 
courses  at  dinner,  the  heavy  or  meat 
course  and  the  dessert.  Economy  really 
would  be  better  served  by  having  three, 
soup,  meat  or  its  equivalent,  and  dessert, 
for  no  more  food  would  be  eaten,  and  the 
soup  is  better  in  most  cases  for  the  indi- 
vidual than  more  heavy  food.  Three 
courses  would  be  a  factor  for  helping  out 
with  the  meat  problem  in  the  ordinary 
home. 

If  the  first  part  of  the  meal  is  meatless 
and  rather  light,  the  sustenance  needed 
may  be  gained  by  a  heartier  dessert  such 
as  a  pie  or  pudding.  We  know  of  course 
that  pies  have  had  much  said  against 
them  by  dietists,  but  if  dangerous,  they 
are  so  slow  a  poison  and  so  good — if  good 
at  all — that  most  of  us  will  continue  to 
take  some  chances  on  them.  As  a  gen- 
eral statement,  it  may  be  said  that  fruit 


DESSERTS  229 

desserts  are  better  than  pies  or  puddings 
except  in  cold  weather,  when  the  fuel 
value  of  the  latter  makes  them  to  be 
liked  more  than  the  lighter  food. 

Any  canned  or  fresh  fruit  makes  a 
tempting  dessert  if  served  with  a  spoon- 
ful of  whipped  cream  on  it,  and  a  little 
cream  is  not  as  expensive  or  as  thriftless 
as  you  may  think.  It  is  one  of  the  best 
of  foods.  Fruit  may  have  a  meringue  of 
white  of  egg  whipped  to  a  froth  with  a 
spoonful  of  sugar,  or  it  may  be  served  in 
its  original  condition. 

Any  fruit  whip  may  be  made  by  mash- 
ing the  fruit,  uncooked  if  soft  enough  to 
whip,  and  cooked  if  hard  like  apple, 
beating  it  with  the  egg-beater  with  the 
addition  of  sugar  as  needed.  Serve  in 
glasses.  It  is  as  pretty  as  it  is  good. 
You  may  add  a  bit  of  whipped  cream  to 
that  for  looks.  Cream  whipped  will 
"  go  "  nearly  three  times  as  far  with  a 
dessert  as  it  will  if  served  unwhipped. 


230     THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

You  may  make  three  desserts  from  your 
fruit  whip,  first  as  it  is  just  made,  then 
with  the  cream,  and  lastly,  you  may 
place  it  upon  rounds  of  buttered  toast,  or 
slices  of  stale  cake  or  cottage  pudding. 

Boiled  rice  shaped  into  forms,  crowned 
with  fruit,  and  served  with  sugar  and 
milk,  will  please  children  and  adults. 
Teacups  may  be  used  if  you  have  no 
regular  molds.  Make  a  food  attractive 
to  the  eyes  and  children  will  enjoy  what 
otherwise  they  will  refuse  to  eat.  You 
can  hollow  out  the  top  of  the  rice  and 
drop  a  cherry  in  the  hollow  and  that 
pleases  the  child.  A  delicious  and  very 
inexpensive  pudding  is  made  of  rice  in 
the  following  way  :  Into  the  baking-dish 
in  which  the  pudding  will  be  served 
(butter  well)  turn  a  quart  of  milk  ;  add 
three  heaping  tablespoonfuls  of  rice  and 
the  same  amount  of  sugar.  Stir  when 
placed  in  the  oven  and  continue  to  stir 
until  rice  is  swollen.  Season  as  you  like 


DESSERTS  231 

it.  Add  raisins  if  you  wish,  but  they 
are  not  needed  for  excellence.  Put  into 
a  good  oven,  but  as  soon  as  the  milk  has 
become  thoroughly  hot  lessen  the  heat 
of  the  oven  as  the  deliciousness  of  this 
pudding  depends  upon  slow  baking.  It 
should  bake  slowly  for  three  hours  and 
the  milk  never  bubble.  This  pudding  is 
to  be  eaten  cold,  and  it  will  seem  like  a 
jelly. 

From  biscuit  dough  you  may  have  a 
wide  range  of  desserts  ;  cut  in  biscuit 
rounds,  bake,  split,  and  fill  with  fruit : 
there  is  the  individual  shortcake.  You 
may  make  a  filling  of  raisins  and  dates 
or  raisins  only,  and  you  may  cook  the 
fruit,  one  cup  to  one-half  cup  of  water, 
one-half  cup  of  sugar,  and  when  thick 
turn  over  it  the  beaten  white  of  an  egg. 
You  can  make  this  filling  for  the  biscuit 
shortcakes  or  for  a  layer  cake  in  which 
you  will  use  the  yoke  of  the  egg. 

Instead  of  cutting  the  dough,  roll  it 


232     THEIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

very  thin  and  spread  with  cinnamon  and 
sugar.  Roll  like  a  jelly  cake,  and  from 
the  end  of  the  roll  cat  in  inch  wide 
slices.  Bake  in  a  quick  oven,  laying 
each  slice  flat  on  the  bake-tin.  With  a 
cup  of  coffee  these  are  nice  for  dessert  or 
for  afternoon  tea.  Now  you  can  roll  the 
dough  thin  for  another  dessert,  but  this 
time  you  will  not  cut  it.  You  will 
spread  it  with  some  jelly  that  did  not 
thicken  well  when  you  made  it.  Then 
start  at  the  smallest  end  and  roll  to  the 
other  side.  Bake  this  roly-poly  and  you 
will  find  it  good.  If  you  have  no  jelly 
you  can  spread  it  with  nuts  and  raisins 
run  through  the  finest  grinder,  or  slices 
of  fruit,  sweetened  as  needed.  The  fruit 
must  be  sliced  very  thin  and  the  dough 
must  be  so  thin  that  when  rolled  it  has  a 
chance  to  bake  through.  The  thicker 
the  roll,  the  slower  must  be  the  oven, 
otherwise  the  outside  will  be  burned  be- 
fore the  inside  is  baked.  Practise  makes 


DESSERTS  233 

perfect,  and  is  the  only  thing  that  does 
make  perfect  the  rolling  of  these  bread- 
dough  desserts,  but  they  are  worth  the 
effort.  When  you  have  the  knack  you 
can  experiment  and  find  something  else 
that  rewards  your  efforts. 

In  England,  griddle-cakes  are  served 
as  dessert.  They  are  the  thinnest  cakes 
imaginable,  are  rolled  like  jelly-cakes 
after  being  spread  with  sugar  or  jelly, 
and  eaten  without  any  other  accompani- 
ment. 

At  least  once  a  week  a  tapioca  dessert 
should  be  served  in  a  family  where  there 
are  children.  It  is  not  only  very  good 
but  it  is  one  of  the  least  expensive  of 
foods.  Tapioca  is  excellent  for  little  folk 
and  they  always  like  tapioca  desserts. 
In  cooking  it,  remember  that  it  stiffens 
considerably  as  it  cools  and  is  usually 
eaten  cold.  You  can  give  great  variety 
to  the  dessert  of  tapioca,  and  if  you  wish 
to  make  it  more  of  a  food  you  can  use 


234:     THKIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

milk  and  eggs  in  the  composition  of  your 
dessert,  but  you  can  have  many  delicious 
puddings  without  either. 

The  old-fashioned  tapioca  required 
overnight  soaking,  but  the  present  can 
be  used  without  preliminary  soaking, 
which  is  a  great  convenience.  You  can 
modify  the  following  recipe  in  many 
ways  by  changing  the  fruit  and  with 
each  you  will  like  it.  Drain  a  can  of 
peaches  or  use  the  equivalent  amount 
of  the  fresh  fruit.  To  peach  syrup  add 
enough  boiling  water  to  make  three  cups 
of  liquid.  Heat  to  boiling  point  and  add 
tapioca,  prepared  according  to  directions 
on  package.  These  directions  vary  with 
different  makers.  Add  three-fourths  cup 
of  sugar ;  cook  in  double-boiler  until 
transparent.  Line  a  pudding-dish  with 
peaches  cut  in  quarters,  turn  the  tapioca 
over  them,  and  bake  in  moderate  oven. 
Apples  cooked  in  this  manner  are  deli- 
cious. 


DESSERTS  235 

Tapioca  pudding  may  be  made  with 
coffee,  chocolate,  jelly,  or  any  fruit  juice, 
and  the  making  is  simple.  Two  table- 
spoonfuls  of  tapioca,  a  scant  quart  of 
boiling  water,  three  tablespoonfuls  of 
sugar,  make  ample  dessert  for  four  per- 
sons, in  the  form  of  either  baked  or  boiled 
pudding.  If  a  coffee  tapioca  is  made,  use 
the  hot  coffee  left  from  breakfast  in  place 
of  water,  and  do  the  same  with  chocolate. 
Treat  as  in  the  recipe  given  above.  In- 
stead of  baking,  after  the  tapioca  has 
boiled  to  transparency  add  the  fruit  and 
cook  until  it  is  soft.  It  is  equally  good. 

Corn-starch  is  also  the  base  of  many 
good  simple  desserts,  but  they  do  not 
quite  equal  those  from  tapioca.  The  sug- 
gestions given  for  tapioca  are  as  good  for 
corn-starch,  and  with  either  it  is  better 
to  have  the  pudding  too  soft  than  too 
stiff.  When  it  is  too  stiff  it  makes  one 
think  of  paste,  which  is  not  appetizing. 
Banana  or  orange  is  a  pleasant  addition  to 


236     THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

either  and  at  little  cost.  One  banana 
will  flavor  the  pudding,  but  two  oranges 
are  needed  for  an  orange  pudding. 

Corn-starch  may  be  the  foundation  for 
blanc-mange,  and  an  economical  dessert 
is  cocoanut  blanc-mange.  Save  enough 
milk  from  a  quart  to  mix  with  the  corn- 
starch  and  cocoanut,  a  little  more  than  a 
cupful,  and  put  the  remainder  into  a 
double-boiler  to  heat.  When  the  milk 
is  hot,  add  a  quarter-cup  of  dessicated 
cocoanut  and  five  level  tablespoonfuls 
of  corn-starch  rubbed  smooth  with  cold 
milk,  cook  until  smooth  and  done. 
Sweeten  with  two  tablespoonfuls  of 
sugar,  and  turn  the  whole  into  molds. 
Set  where  they  will  be  cold,  and  when 
serving  sprinkle  with  shredded  cocoanut. 
Puddings  will  not  stick  to  molds  that 
have  been  wet  and  are  well  chilled  when 
the  contents  are  added. 

Junket  tablets  and  Irish  moss  com- 
bined with  milk  make  desirable  desserts. 


DESSERTS  237 

Rules  for  junket  are  printed  with  the 
tablets.  Irish  moss  is  tied  in  muslin, 
boiled  with  milk,  and  is  the  original 
blanc-mange.  It  may  be  found  by  the 
sea  on  the  Atlantic  coast,  or  bought 
from  the  druggist. 

Eggless  puddings  for  cold  days  often 
make  a  finish  to  a  dinner  that  pleases  a 
man  more  than  any  fancy  dish,  however 
nice  it  may  be,  and  bring  a  satisfaction  a 
lighter  dessert  fails  to  give  in  winter. 
When  you  want  a  pudding  that  supplies 
nearly  as  much  food  as  meat  try  this  suet 
pudding.  Two  cups  chopped  suet  (if  it 
mats  as  you  chop,  sprinkle  it  with  flour). 
Two-thirds  of  a  cup  of  molasses,  a  cup  of 
sweet  milk,  a  teaspoonful  of  soda,  four 
cups  of  flour,  a  cup  of  chopped  raisins. 
Mix  and  steam  four  hours.  Season  with 
spices  if  liked.  This  is  better  on  reheat- 
ing than  at  first. 

Graham  steamed  pudding  is  better  than 
you  might  think  it  would  be.  For  it 


238     THRIFT  IJSf  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

take  two  cups  of  Graham  flour,  cup  of 
molasses,  cup  sweet  milk,  cup  of  raisins, 
teaspoonful  soda  and  a  little  salt.  Steam 
this  pudding  two  and  a  half  hours. 

The  nicest  and  whitest  of  the  eggless 
puddings  is  cranberry  pudding.  Take  a 
cup  of  sugar,  a  cup  of  milk,  two  cups  of 
flour,  three  tablespoon fu Is  melted  short- 
ening— if  you  use  a  cooking  oil  for  short- 
ening take  only  a  spoonful — two  tea- 
spoonfuls  baking-powder,  a  coffee-cup  of 
cranberries.  This  is  very  light  and  good. 
Substitute  raisins  for  cranberries  if  you 
wish,  and  lessen  the  sugar  one-half,  or 
use  dates,  or  both.  Fresh  berries  make 
a  good  addition,  but  the  dough  must  be 
made  stiffer  to  balance  the  moisture  of 
the  berries.  Use  for  any  of  these  the 
pudding-sauce  you  prefer.  Bake  this 
pudding. 

Apples  furnish  material  for  many  in- 
viting and  inexpensive  desserts.  Bake 
them  after  they  have  been  cored  and 


DESSERTS  239 

stuffed  with  raisins  and  nuts.  Serve 
with  cream.  Any  cook-book  will  give 
you  hints  for  using  apples  and  making 
desserts  to  be  enjoyed.  Take  slices  of 
stale  bread,  butter  them,  and  place  in  a 
bake-dish  in  which  they  will  be  served. 
Sprinkle  them  lightly  with  sugar,  and 
over  each  layer  of  bread  put  apple-sauce 
generously.  If  it  is  moist,  nothing  more 
will  be  necessary,  but  if  the  sauce  is  dry, 
turn  enough  milk  over  it  to  moisten  it. 
Bake  until  it  is  done,  and  eat  with  milk 
and  sugar  or  with  hard  sauce.  These  are 
simply  hints  for  help  in  devising  simple 
desserts.  It  is  safe  to  substitute  one 
fruit  for  another,  and  to  experiment  with 
what  you  have,  using  your  judgment  for 
such  changes  as  should  be  made. 

When  you  have  tired  of  prunes  in  their 
usual  form,  pit  them  and  add  to  a  custard, 
or  reheat  them  with  some  minced  lemon 
or  orange-peel  added  to  the  water  in  which 
you  heat  them.  This  makes  them  into 


240    THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

quite  a  different  dish.  Add  quartered 
prunes  to  a  lemon  jelly  ;  for  breakfast  or 
dessert,  try  a  combination  of  prunes  cut 
in  half  with  segments  of  orange  added. 
Uncooked  prunes,  pitted  and  each  stuffed 
with  a  nut-meat  or  raisin,  make  a  good 
and  cheap  dessert.  Peanuts  may  be 
chosen,  and  peanuts  are  a  true  food. 

Any  dish  compounded  largely  with 
milk  will  be  nourishing.  Milk  is  one  of 
the  best  of  foods,  and  those  who  cannot 
eat  it  cold  or  uncooked  can  generally  eat 
it  in  soup  or  other  cooked  forms.  Let  it 
serve  in  that  way  if  there  are  children  in 
the  family.  A  simple  milk  dish  is  made 
by  adding  milk  to  crackers.  If  you  can 
get  the  old-fashioned  kind  that  splits  in 
halves,  take  them.  Split,  butter,  place  in 
pan,  and  add  milk  to  cover.  Season 
with  salt  only.  Bake  slowly  until  the 
milk  is  entirely  absorbed  and  the  crack- 
ers more  than  doubled  in  size.  This  may 
be  elaborated  by  adding  an  egg,  well 


DESSERTS  241 

beaten,  to  the  milk  before  covering  the 
crackers,  or  it  may  have  slices  of  apple 
or  other  uncooked  fruit  or  raisins  and 
prunes,  and  in  that  case  add  sugar  as 
needed.  It  is  good  as  a  simple  dessert  or 
as  a  breakfast  dish. 


CHAPTER  XV 
THRIFT  AND  TEXTILES 


CHAPTER  XV 
THKIFT  AND  TEXTILES 

BUYING  covers  all  needs  of  the  family, 
and  though  the  wastes  are  more  numer- 
ous in  the  kitchen  than  in  any  other 
department  of  the  household,  it  is  equally 
necessary  to  look  after  leakages  in  buy- 
ing wearing-apparel,  household  linen,  and 
all  such  supplies.  In  these  the  best  is 
the  cheapest,  but  it  is  not  always  true 
that  the  highest-priced  is  the  best.  The 
highest-priced  are  novelties  which  have 
no  merit  above  older  patterns  except  that 
of  novelty — if  such  it  be.  For  service  in 
the  household,  a  design  that  is  ten  years 
old  in  table-linen,  sheeting,  towels,  and 
such  things  is  just  as  good  as  the  latest 
and  will  cost  one-third  less  at  times.  It 

is  thrift  to  renew  these  things  when  the 
245 


246     THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

yearly  sales  are  closing  out  the  novelties 
that  came  in  the  previous  season.  One 
can  buy  better  at  the  sales  than  at  other 
times,  and  it  is  distinctly  thrifty  to  satisfy 
one's  needs  for  the  year  then. 

Thrift  does  not  wait  until  everything 
has  been  worn  thin  before  buying  new, 
but  gets  a  few  things  as  the  year  goes  by. 
It  costs  much  more  to  make  good  the 
neglect  of  several  years  than  to  foresee 
the  wear  and  to  replenish  as  one  knows 
wear  is  telling  on  household  linen.  A 
pair  of  sheets  and  pillow  slips,  a  few  tow- 
els, et  cetera,  make  no  great  drain  on  the 
family  treasury,  while  buying  them  in 
quantity  does.  It  is  easier  to  find  five 
dollars  a  year  than  to  wait  and  have  to 
pay  twenty-five. 

If  you  do  not  feel  that  you  can  afford 
to  buy  fine  table-linen  it  is  not  necessary 
to  economize  by  using  table  oilcloth. 
There  are  as  pretty  designs  in  mercer- 
ized cotton  as  one  need  want  to  see  and 


THRIFT  AND  TEXTILES         247 

at  much  less  cost  than  for  linen.  With 
these  you  can  keep  a  table  that  you 
need  not  be  ashamed  of.  Treat  yourself 
to  one  fine  linen  cloth  for  the  festal  oc- 
casions of  the  family,  birthdays,  Christ- 
mas, and  special  guests,  but  use  for  every 
day  the  napkins  and  cloths  that  you  can 
afford,  and  keep  your  table  clean  and 
charming.  You  can  do  that  even  if  dol- 
lars are  very  few.  Pretty  dishes  are  not 
costly  and  soap  and  water  will  keep 
cloths  clean.  For  breakfast  and  supper 
let  doilies  take  the  place  of  the  long 
cloth.  It  saves  work  and  is  much  more 
attractive  and  is  also  the  favored  way  at 
the  present  day.  It  is  poor  thrift  that 
expresses  itself  in  soiled  table  furnishings. 
The  table  and  its  supplies  are  the  heart 
of  the  home,  the  expression  of  its  highest 
attainment  in  fineness  of  living,  and  for 
the  sake  of  all  who  gather  about  it  let  it 
be  as  perfect  as  your  means  can  buy,  not 
so  much  in  high  cost  of  cloth  and  food  as 


248     THKIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

in  cleanness,  smoothness  of  the  cloth,  and 
the  manners  of  your  family.  It  is  better 
to  have  only  bread  and  butter  served 
with  the  courtesy  that  is  the  charm  of 
personal  intercourse  than  untidy  abun- 
dance and  the  personal  bearing  that  cor- 
responds. 

The  table  is  one  place  where  one  may 
not  choose  what  is  easier  if  one  does  her 
duty  to  her  children,  because  the  fineness 
of  the  child's  nature  and  his  future  out- 
look are  affected  by  the  table  training  he 
receives.  One  may  have  the  manner  that 
a  prince  is  supposed  to  have  if  from  early 
childhood  he  has  lived  graciously,  for  it 
costs  nothing  in  money  to  have  the  grace 
of  the  well-bred,  but  it  takes  thought, 
and  constant  attention.  Let  your  child 
have  the  simplest  food — he  will  be  the 
better  for  it — but  do  not  use  economy  on 
anything  that  will  make  it  possible  for 
him  to  grow  up  with  an  idea  that  he  can 
eat  with  his  fingers,  or  on  a  cracked  dish 


THRIFT  AND  TEXTILES         249 

at  a  coverless  table  or  one  with  a  dirty 
cloth. 

Treat  children  as  you  wish  them  to  be 
when  the  days  of  childhood  are  past.  If 
you  can  do  it  for  no  other  reason,  do  it  be- 
cause it  is  an  asset  in  business  that  increases 
in  value  as  business  demands  become  more 
intensive.  The  day  of  the  successful  boor 
is  nearly  at  its  end.  "  Politeness  is  sur- 
face Christianity,"  wrote  Dr.  Oliver  Wen- 
dell Holmes.  It  is  the  finest  thrift,  the 
farthest-reaching,  to  insure  its  being  a 
part  of  your  children.  Those  who  have 
learned  in  childhood  the  niceties  of  con- 
duct will  not  forget  them  under  the  most 
primitive  conditions.  They  are  a  part  of 
the  individual  like  his  morals,  but  those 
who  get  their  good  breeding  after  adult 
years  have  come  to  them  revert  to  the 
habits  of  childhood  at  every  opportunity 
and  often  without  knowledge  of  doing  so. 
Keep  the  table  looking  as  it  should  even 
if  the  children  wear  patches.  There  is  no 


250     THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

disgrace  in  patches  but  there  is  nothing 
else  than  disgrace  in  bad  manners. 

Now  let  us  return  to  the  point  of 
digression.  The  rules  of  buying  are  in 
general  the  same  ;  the  principles  of  thrift 
in  the  kitchen  will  be  the  same  in  the 
parlor  or  the  bedroom. 

Buy  the  standards  in  quantity  if 
thereby  you  get  reduction  in  price,  if 
not,  you  would  better  save  your  money 
until  the  need  comes  and  have  the  in- 
terest on  it.  Never  buy  anything  for 
which  you  have  not  a  real  need.  If 
you  can  buy  sheeting  very  cheaply  at  a 
certain  time  and  you  are  near  the  time 
when  sheets  must  be  bought  you  do  well 
to  get  them,  but  buying  what  is  not 
needed  is  a  snare  and  a  delusion  that 
takes  many  good  dollars  out  of  some 
pockets. 

If  your  time  has  a  marketable  value  or 
if  you  are  not  able  to  sew  you  will  find  it 
more  economical  to  buy  your  garments 


THRIFT  AND  TEXTILES         251 

ready-made.  A  dress  can  be  bought  that 
looks  well  and  will  be  fitted  to  you  prop- 
erly for  much  less  than  the  same  garment 
can  be  made,  but  not  for  as  little  as  you 
can  make  it  if  you  know  how  to  sew.  If 
every  girl  would  take  a  course  of  instruc- 
tion in  dressmaking  and  millinery  she 
would  save  herself  many  dollars  and  dress 
herself  better  than  she  ever  did  before, 
while  spending  no  more,  and  very  likely 
less.  She  would  also  have  a  business, 
whether  she  ever  followed  it  or  not,  in 
which  a  really  good  worker  is  never 
without  profitable  employment. 

If  one  has  a  good  dress  that  is  worth 
making  over  it  pays  her  to  have  a  dress- 
maker at  home.  Never  hire  a  poor  dress- 
maker, for  she  will  spend  half  her  time 
correcting  the  mistakes  she  makes  in  the 
other  half. 

Because  they  are  wasteful,  the  thrifty 
will  not  buy  mixtures  of  cotton  and  wool. 
They  do  not  wear  alike,  and  they  shrink 


252     THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

surprisingly.  All  materials  about  the 
unshrinking  quality  of  which  there  is  a 
doubt  should  be  shrunken  before  they 
are  made  up.  Men's  trousers  should  not 
be  bought  without  a  guarantee  that  they 
will  not  shrink.  It  is  distinctly  poor 
economy  to  buy  garments  without  such 
warrant  of  good  material.  More  than 
one  man  whose  dollars  are  limited  has 
bought  clothing  at  what  he  considered  a 
bargain,  only  to  find  after  being  out  in  a 
rain  that  he  could  no  longer  wear  what 
he  had  bought.  That  kind  of  buying  is 
extravagance  at  any  price,  as  any  worth- 
less thing  is.  No  woolen  clothing  to-day 
can  be  sold  at  a  low  price,  for  wool  is 
scarce  and  therefore  dear. 

Men's  clothing  may  be  found  ready- 
made,  following  good  lines,  and  men 
wear  ready-made  garments  without  the 
sense  of  being  ill  dressed  that  once  was 
taken  for  granted  with  such  clothing. 
Just  as  the  home-made  shirt  is  practically 


THRIFT  AND  TEXTILES         253 

unknown,  and  the  custom-made  seldom 
worn,  so  now  the  entire  wear  of  a  man 
is  ready  for  him  to  don  when  minor 
corrections  have  fitted  it  to  his  figure. 
The  same  is  becoming  so  much  the  case 
with  women's  garments  that  it  is  really 
an  economy  for  the  woman,  whose  time 
or  strength  is  limited,  to  get  ready-made 
gowns  from  a  good  house.  She  will  have 
them  fitted  to  her,  and  the  saving  of  time 
and  bother  is  a  relief. 

Whether  it  is  cheaper  to  have  a  good 
dressmaker  come  to  the  house,  or  take 
material  to  her  to  make,  or  to  buy  ready- 
made,  are  questions  that  have  been  de- 
bated much.  It  is  cheaper  to  buy  a  dress 
ready-made  than  to  buy  the  same  ma- 
terials and  take  them  to  a  dressmaker, 
counting  in  dollars  and  cents.  There 
are,  however,  times  when  there  is  no 
question  that  it  pays  to  have  a  good 
woman,  skilful  with  her  needle,  work  at 
your  home.  Turn  it  into  an  arithmetical 


254:     THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

problem  and  you  will  find  your  answer. 
Here  is  a  dress  that  with  a  little  revision 
will  do  good  service  for  a  season  and  save 
the  expense  of  another.  If  that  revision 
costs  less  than  the  new  one  would  cost,  it 
pays  to  have  it  made.  Into  the  cost  you 
must  reckon  the  dinner  of  the  seamstress. 
There  is  no  profit  in  hiring  a  workwoman 
who  makes  mistakes.  There  is  better 
profit  in  hiring  one  who  charges  more 
but  is  so  competent  that  each  stitch  is 
right,  each  line  of  the  shears  just  as  it 
should  be.  The  profit  or  loss  in  hiring 
work  done  at  home  depends  upon  the 
personal  equation,  which  each  must  know 
for  herself  better  than  it  can  be  told  by 
another. 

In  the  ordinary  household  it  is  thrift 
to  buy  one's  sheeting  by  the  quantity 
and  make  one's  sheets  on  the  machine. 
It  is  folly  to  hem  them  by  hand.  One 
gets  a  much  better  sheet  for  the  same 
money  by  making  it  herself.  Life  is  too 


THRIFT  AND  TEXTILES         255 

short  and  too  full  to  put  any  great 
amount  of  it  into  hemming  ordinary 
things  by  hand. 

Another  point  to  consider  in  buying  is 
to  get  that  which  accords  with  your  in- 
come and  position  in  life.  If  your  in- 
come warrants  paying  for  good  silk  and 
you  want  it,  buy  it,  but  if  you  cannot 
pay  for  good  silk  do  not  be  guilty  of  the 
waste  and  sham  of  buying  a  poor  quality. 
Things  that  should  be  expensive  look  the 
cheapest  and  commonest  of  everything 
when  bought  in  imitation  or  in  cheap 
quality,  and  are  really  very  dear  because 
they  do  not  last. 

Cloth  at  fifty  cents  a  yard  which  is  so 
mixed  with  cotton  that  it  looks  well  only 
three  months  is  higher  in  price  than  ma- 
terial at  a  dollar  and  a  half  that  will 
wear  two  years  and  look  well  longer  when 
remade. 

Silk  stockings  at  fifty  cents  do  not  look 
well  on  any  one.  They  are  shabbier  than 


256     THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

good  cotton  ones  and  much  dearer  at  the 
same  money.  A  fine  hose  at  fifty  cents 
really  looks  better  and  will  outwear  four 
pair  of  cheap,  and  cheap-looking  silk  at 
the  same  price.  No  girl  on  a  salary  of 
ten  dollars  a  week  is  well-dressed  if  she 
wears  silk  stockings  at  any  price,  or  if  a 
gift.  She  is  attempting  to  be  what  she  is 
not,  which  is  not  good  taste.  If  women 
could  realize  that  imitations  make  one 
look  ill-dressed,  and  be  content  to  clothe 
themselves  truthfully  they  would  serve 
the  gods  of  propriety,  thrift,  and  beauty 
instead  of  those  to  whom  belong  waste 
and  vulgarity.  "  Simplicity  is  the  high- 
est art,"  and  it  is  a  characteristic  of  gen- 
uineness. 


CHAPTER  XVI 
CARE  OF  CLOTHING 


CHAPTER  XVI 
CAKE  OF  CLOTHING 

CARE  of  clothing  is  true  thrift,  and 
more  important  to  one  who  would  look 
well  on  a  small  amount  than  the  original 
buying,  for  it  not  only  doubles  the  life 
of  a  garment  but  keeps  it  looking  well  as 
long  as  anything  of  it  is  left.  This  is 
noticeably  true  of  material  of  good  value. 
With  cheap  garments,  good  care  is  more 
necessary  if  one  is  to  have  any  satisfac- 
tion whatever  from  them. 

Nothing  looks  well  when  there  are 
spots  to  be  seen  on  it,  so  keep  on  hand 
always  ready  for  use  a  good  cleansing 
preparation.  An  application  will  remove 
the  spot  before  it  has  become  hard.  Try 
the  following,  adding  one  and  a  half 
ounces  of  pure  white  soap  to  a  pint  of 

boiling  water.     Shave  the  soap  so  that  it 
259 


260     THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

will  more  quickly  dissolve.  Boil  for  ten 
minutes  after  the  soap  has  dissolved,  and 
then  turn  into  a  glass  or  china  holder. 
Keep  closely  covered.  This  was  recom- 
mended to  me  as  being  equal  to  the 
needs  of  the  family  from  taking  out  ink- 
spots  to  cleansing  gloves. 

Fresh  ink-spots  may  be  removed  by 
soaking  in  milk.  Old  ink-stains  that 
have  been  dried  in  may  be  taken  out  by 
washing  in  hot  lard.  Wash  just  as  one 
would  with  water,  and  wash  again  and 
again,  finally  washing  out  the  lard  in 
soapy  water.  I  have  known  this  to  work 
wonders  with  a  bed-cover  on  which  an 
ink-bottle  had  been  upset. 

Paint  on  clothing  should  be  treated 
with  turpentine  and  ammonia  in  equal 
parts.  Saturate  two  or  three  times  if 
necessary  and  wash  out  in  white  soap- 
suds. 

A  mixture  of  Fuller's  earth  and  pow- 
dered alum,  equal  parts,  is  said  to  be 


CARE  OF  CLOTHING  261 

excellent  for  cleaning  white  suede  gloves. 
For  the  glace  kid  give  different  treatment. 
Undressed  kid  may  also  be  cleaned  by 
rubbing  with  the  finest  sandpaper.  It 
should  not  be  scrubbed  but  lightly 
rubbed.  The  effect  is  excellent.  These 
are  better  than  gasoline  for  cleaning  be- 
cause they  leave  no  odor.  The  paste  first 
mentioned  will  clean  glace"  gloves. 

Clear,  black  coffee  diluted  with  water 
and  containing  a  little  ammonia  may  be 
used  for  cleaning  black  cloth  garments. 
To  renew  thin  black  dresses,  dip  a  cloth 
in  gum-arabic  water — quite  a  weak  solu- 
tion— and  lay  over  the  cloth  on  an 
ironing-board  covered  with  black.  Use 
a  black  cloth  to  dip  in  the  solution. 
Pin  the  cloth  smoothly  to  the  board, 
right-side  down.  Cover  with  the  cloth 
that  was  dipped.  Over  this  have  a  dry 
piece,  and  press  with  a  hot  iron.  The 
effect  is  very  good.  If  you  wish  to  treat 
a  white  muslin  use  rice-water  instead  of 


262     THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

the  gum  arable  but  pin  it  to  the  cloth, 
cover  with  the  wet  cloth  and  the  dry  as 
you  did  for  the  black  muslin.  It  will 
look  like  new.  Never  wring  any  thin 
material.  Pat  it  dry  enough  to  press, 
wrong-side  up. 

If  you  wish  to  remake  a  dress,  rip  it 
carefully  and  pull  out  all  the  threads. 
Take  a  good  day  for  cleaning  it  and  have 
ready  a  bath  of  soap  bark.  Five  cents' 
worth  from  the  druggist  will  give  you 
all  you  need.  Put  the  dry  bark  in  a 
cheese-cloth  bag  and  pour  over  it  a  gallon 
of  boiling  water.  Let  the  decoction  stand 
until  dark  colored.  Put  in  a  tub  or  pail 
with  your  goods  with  warm  water  to 
cover  them  and  let  stand  overnight.  In 
the  morning  souse  up  and  down,  then 
rinse  thoroughly  with  warm  water.  Do 
not  wring.  Hang  in  a  shady  place  until 
dry,  or  nearly  dry,  and  if  it  has  not  dried 
smooth  press  it  under  a  clean  cloth  with 
a  hot  iron.  This  treatment  is  like  magic 


CARE  OF  CLOTHING  263 

for  removing  spots  and  can  be  used  on 
material  of  delicate  colors  without  harm- 
ing them  in  the  least.  There  are  women 
who  clean  their  woolen  coats  and  dresses 
in  this  manner  without  ripping  them, 
but  that  requires  some  expertness  as  it 
does  to  wash  them  in  gasoline. 

A  gasoline  bath  can  be  used  for  laces, 
dainty  wraps,  and  nearly  anything, 
though  since  the  price  of  that  cleanser 
has  risen  so  much  it  is  about  as  cheap  to 
send  them  to  a  professional.  A  bath  of 
gasoline  means  three  relays  of  it.  In  the 
first  the  material  soaks  enough  to  loosen 
the  dirt,  and  in  the  other  two  it  is  rinsed 
out.  The  cleanest  things  are  first  treated 
and  the  "  waters  "  are  used  until  they  are 
dirty.  No  water  must  touch  the  gar- 
ments. The  cleaning  must  be  done  out- 
of-doors  because  gasoline  is  dangerous  to 
handle  in  a  house.  I  have  a  friend  who 
cleans  feathers,  hose,  gloves,  and  various 
little  things  including  summer  frocks 


264:     THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

that  do  not  launder  well  in  water.  They 
need  no  ironing  when  gasoline-cleaned. 
Personally,  my  experience  has  never 
been  successful  in  the  use  of  gasoline.  If 
I  try  to  take  out  a  spot  with  it,  a  bigger 
one  comes  in  the  place  of  what  I  tried  to 
remove,  but  the  fault  is  personal,  not  in 
the  method  which  many  follow  regularly. 
Gloves  may  be  cleaned  with  gasoline 
by  the  most  inexpert  if  she  will  do  it  this 
way.  Put  the  gloves  in  a  quart  glass 
jar.  Several  pairs  may  be  done  at  one 
time.  There  must  be  gasoline  to  cover 
them  but  not  to  fill  the  jar.  Let  them 
stand  half  an  hour,  then  shake  the  jar 
fast.  The  dirt  will  fall  out  of  the  gloves. 
Remove  lid  of  jar  and  put  the  gloves 
into  another  with  an  equal  amount  of 
gasoline.  Shake  in  this,  and  if  after 
standing  ten  minutes  and  the  shaking 
they  are  not  clean,  give  them  another 
bath  in  a  third  jar.  That  will  make 
them  as  clean  as  ever  they  can  be  made. 


CAKE  OF  CLOTHING  265 

To  do  one  pair  of  gloves  this  way  is  ex- 
travagant, but  the  gasoline  for  one  pair 
may  be  used  to  clean  a  dozen  pairs  and 
its  price  then  is  not  excessive  for  the 
return. 

If  you  have  a  nice  dress  which  has 
been  spotted  with  something  that  you 
are  not  sure  of,  do  not  try  to  remove  it. 
Send  it  to  a  professional  cleaner.  Re- 
moving stains  is  a  regular  business  and 
wonders  can  be  wrought  by  one  who 
knows  it.  Never  practise  on  expensive 
articles.  It  is  cheaper  to  entrust  the 
work  to  one  who  knows  just  what  to  do 
and  how  it  should  be  done. 

One  of  the  most  profitable  forms  of 
thrift  is  to  have  street  gowns  for  the 
street  only,  removing  as  soon  as  one  gets 
home.  Nothing  can  demoralize  a  gown 
more  than  lounging  around  in  it,  or 
wearing  it  out  about  the  kitchen  when 
preparing  supper  or  dinner.  Have  a 
well-made  street  dress  of  good  material, 


266     THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

remove  it  as  soon  as  you  get  home,  and 
substitute  a  pretty  house  gown  that  you 
can  make  for  yourself  by  the  help  of  any 
dependable  pattern.  By  house  dress  I 
mean  one  that  is  daintier  than  is  per- 
missible for  street  wear.  Under  the  term 
house  dress  is  not  included  kimonos, 
wrappers,  or  any  of  the  sloppy  things 
that  are  discreditable  to  a  woman  in  her 
home  and  enough  to  make  matrimony 
seem  a  failure  to  any  husband.  Even  in 
these  days  of  high  prices  it  is  possible  to 
find  material  as  low  as  a  quarter  of  a 
dollar  a  yard  from  which  a  woman  can 
construct  attractive  house  frocks  which 
will  make  her  look  pleasant  to  the  eyes 
of  her  family,  and  her  world  will  be 
happy.  A  well-fitted  and  well-made  cal- 
ico house  gown  better  becomes  a  woman 
than  a  kimono  of  silk  when  occupied 
with  her  duties,  and  far  better  than  a 
dirty,  spotted  woolen  which  can  no  longer 
be  worn  on  the  street. 


CARE  OF  CLOTHING  26T 

Clothing  for  man,  woman,  and  child 
should  be  hung  on  hangers  as  soon  as 
taken  off.  It  should  be  aired  before  be- 
ing shut  in  a  closet.  All  articles  should 
be  dusted  before  being  put  away,  should 
have  the  needed  stitches  taken,  or  laces 
freshened  up,  and  everything  done  that 
should  be  before  it  is  worn  again.  One's 
clothing  should  be  kept  in  condition  for 
wearing,  not  left  neglected  until  time  to 
wear  it  again.  Care  will  keep  it  young 
in  appearance  much  longer  than  is  other- 
wise possible. 

If  you  have  a  dress  of  good  material 
which  has  faded,  or  if  you  are  tired  of 
its  color,  why  not  dye  it?  If  you  are 
afraid  to  try  it  yourself,  have  it  done  by 
a  good  dyer.  It  is  not  necessary  to  rip 
anything  to  have  it  dyed.  If  an  over- 
coat is  of  all-wool  and  has  become  shabby 
from  wear  it  may  be  made  to  look  well 
by  a  good  dyer's  work  on  it,  and  save  the 
expense  of  a  new  one. 


268     THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

Cottons  that  have  become  streaky  have 
been  dyed  so  that  they  looked  prettier 
than  new.  I  know  a  very  charming 
frock  now  pale  green  which  began  as  a 
lavender  crepe,  faded  until  it  looked 
more  like  a  rag  than  anything  else.  The 
owner  boiled  it  in  cream-of-tartar  water 
and  made  it  white,  then  dyed  it,  changed 
the  neck,  added  touches  of  black  velvet, 
and  at  the  cost  of  a  few  cents  had  a  dress 
that  has  been  greatly  admired.  Had  it 
not  been  dyed  it  would  have  been  worth- 
less. She  made  it  herself.  It  does  not 
often  pay  to  hire  such  work  done. 

Shoes  are  so  expensive  that  one  likes 
to  know  how  to  make  them  last  their 
longest.  Two  pairs  worn  alternately  will 
last  nearly  as  long  as  three  pairs,  each 
worn  regularly  until  beyond  repair. 
When  the  shoes  are  removed  from  the 
feet,  every  trace  of  dust  should  be  wiped 
from  them,  an  old  stocking-top  being  ex- 
cellent for  this  purpose.  Always  air  a 


CARE  OF  CLOTHING  269 

shoe  before  setting  it  in  a  closed  place. 
Keep  strings  or  buttons  in  order,  and  to 
do  this  have  extra  strings  and  buttons  at 
hand. 

Vaseline  with  lampblack  added  makes 
a  good  dressing  for  shoes,  and  well 
rubbed,  will  make  a  shine.  The  oil  pre- 
serves the  shoe  and  should  be  rubbed 
enough  to  soften  it.  Vaseline  must  not 
be  used  on  light  shoes  because  any  oil 
deepens  the  color. 

If  shoes  have  been  wet  until  they  are 
soaked,  the  stiffness  may  be  avoided  by 
stuffing  them  while  wet  with  newspaper 
rolled  in  little  balls.  Fill  the  shoes, 
stuffing  the  balls  into  the  toes,  and  fill- 
ing out  the  shape  as  if  the  foot  were  in 
the  shoe.  The  leather  will  be  pliable 
when  dry.  It  is  not  wise  to  set  wet 
shoes  in  a  hot  place  to  dry.  Sometimes 
that  treatment  ruins  them.  Shoes  filled 
with  oats  will  keep  their  proper  shape, 
but  to  use  oats  in  that  fashion  to  accom- 


270     THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

plish  an  end  served  as  well  by  old  papers 
is  not  thrift.  All  articles  of  leather 
which  have  become  too  stiff  for  use 
through  being  wet  may  be  softened  by 
vigorous  rubbing  with  kerosene. 

Corn  meal  is  a  very  good  cleaner.  I 
have  used  it  to  clean  flannel  collars  and 
cuffs,  and  it  serves  for  many  other  things. 
It  is  fine  for  taking  dust  from  straw  hats, 
and  whitens  when  used  with  lemon 
juice.  It  is  to  be  sprinkled  on  and 
rubbed  in  with  a  brush.  Any  light 
straw  may  be  cleaned  with  a  solution  of 
oxalic  acid,  rubbing  it  in  with  a  small 
brush.  The  solution  should  be  made  of 
an  ounce  of  the  crystals  to  a  quart  of 
water.  See  that  the  hat  dries  in  the 
shape  wanted.  For  ten  cents  a  Panama 
hat  can  be  cleaned  to  look  like  new. 
Mix  equal  parts  of  oxalic  acid  and  pre- 
cipitated sulphur.  Dissolve  half  a  tea- 
spoonful  in  half  a  tumbler  of  cold  water, 
remembering  that  you  are  dealing  with 


CARE  OF  CLOTHING  2T1 

a  deadly  poison  when  you  use  oxalic 
acid,  and  must  be  very  careful  where  you 
put  it  and  how  you  use  it.  Dip  a  clean 
sponge  in  the  liquid  and  wipe  the  hat 
until  clean.  Dry  in  the  sun  and  the  hat 
will  reward  you  by  its  appearance. 

If  hats  instead  of  being  dirty  are  dis- 
colored by  the  sun,  they  can  be  bleached 
with  sulphur  fumes.  Country  girls 
sometimes  braid  the  straw  for  their  hats 
and  then  bleach  the  straw  or  the  com- 
pleted hats  by  hanging  to  the  bottom  of 
a  barrel  which  is  turned  upside  down 
over  a  fire-smudge  sprinkled  with  sul- 
phur. This  is  a  successful  method  of 
bleaching,  practicable  only  when  one  has 
outdoor  space.  Sulphur  fumes  are  unsafe 
in  enclosed  spaces. 

Faded  hats  can  be  colored  with  dyes 
that  come  for  hats.  Sometimes  they  are 
not  fast  colors  and  then  as  soon  as  a  rain 
comes  the  result  is  very  unpleasant,  but 
others  are  rain-proof  and  will  improve 


2T2     THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

the  hat  greatly.  You  remember  how  one 
of  the  "  Little  Women  "  painted  her  hat? 
There  is  no  patent  on  the  idea  and  any 
one  who  wants  to  try  it  can  do  so.  Dyes 
for  hat-coloring  are  low-priced  and  of 
many  tints,  so  it  is  quite  possible  to  turn 
even  a  sailor  old  friend  into  a  new  one. 

Laces  also  may  be  dyed  to  match  a 
costume  if  one  cares  for  that  trimming. 
An  old  waist  was  metamorphosed  into  a 
beautiful  new  one  by  being  dyed  brown, 
with  lace  to  match  and  only  such  changes 
made  in  it  as  mode  of  sleeve  necessitated. 
Thrift  will  lead  women  to-day  to  look 
over  the  put-away  garments  and  revive 
for  wear  those  that  may  be  done  over  by 
any  of  these  suggestions. 

Pack  away  all  garments  where  they 
shall  have  no  chance  to  get  dusty.  Wrap 
silks  and  ribbons  in  blue  paper  and  then 
in  brown.  There  is  a  tinge  of  chloride  of 
lime  in  white  paper  and  that  will  discolor 
them.  Packed  in  the  blue  tissue  and 


CAEE  OF  CLOTHING  2Y3 

then  in  brown,  nice  silk  and  satin  dresses 
will  hold  their  freshness  for  a  considera- 
ble time.  This  is  equally  good  for  laying 
away  soft  white  flannels.  Old  blue  silk 
makes  as  good  a  wrapper  as  does  the 
paper. 

Woolens  and  furs  can  have  no  better 
preservative  than  turpentine  and  news- 
paper. There  is  the  advantage  with  this 
that  if  any  eggs  have  been  laid  in  the 
garments  before  putting  away  the  turpen- 
tine will  kill  them.  Those  who  insure 
goods  against  moths  say  the  insects  do  not 
get  in  after  the  goods  are  laid  away  but 
the  eggs  are  in  them  when  packed,  and 
that  moths  lay  eggs  in  articles  hung  in 
the  open  air  on  the  line.  Professionals 
whip  furs  with  tiny,  flexible  rods  and 
then  comb  with  a  fur  comb.  Thus  pre- 
pared and  rolled  in  a  close  cover  of  news- 
papers they  will  keep  in  any  receptacle  if 
turpentine  is  sprinkled  about  it.  Cayenne 
is  better  than  any  moth-ball  except  that 


2T4     THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

the  wearer  of  anything  thus  protected  is 
much  inconvenienced  on  first  wearing  it 
after  taking  from  its  box.  I  used  it  for 
years  and  never  had  a  moth  touch  fur  or 
woolen. 

If  one  has  a  heavy,  expensive  overcoat 
it  should  be  sent  to  a  cleaner  before  pack- 
ing away.  Perfect  cleanliness  is  one  of 
the  best  protections  from  moths,  and  if  a 
garment  has  been  well  cleaned  by  a  pro- 
fessional it  is  almost  certain  to  come  safely 
through  a  season  even  in  a  house  where 
moths  are  to  be  seen  at  almost  any  time. 
By  letting  the  sunshine  in  all  the  time 
the  moths  will  disappear.  They  are  like 
other  evil-doers  and  have  no  desire  to  be 
in  the  sunshine  or  to  touch  printers'  ink. 

Haven't  you  many  a  time  cast  away 
your  husband's  discarded  shirts  with  a 
sigh  that  anything  so  good  should  be 
worthless  for  any  other  purpose  than  for 
cleaning?  Finally  I  experimented  with 
what  I  had  and  first  developed  an  apron. 


CAKE  OF  CLOTHING  275 

The  shirts  were  white  with  a  hair  line,  and 
good  except  around  the  collar.  From  the 
back  came  the  front  of  the  apron  and  the 
fronts  made  side  gores.  A  belt  and  ruffle 
were  found  from  sleeves  and  shoulder- 
piece.  The  result  was  a  very  pretty  apron 
for  home  wear.  This  turned  out  so  well 
that  next  I  made  a  shirt-waist,  which  is 
very  easy  unless  one  is  larger  than  her 
husband.  I  planned  it  to  use  the  same 
buttons  and  buttonholes,  fitting  by  draw- 
ing up  on  the  shoulders.  Now  all  dis- 
carded shirts  form  the  basis  of  rompers  or 
Dutch  suits  for  a  three-year-old  boy.  It 
is  a  very  simple  matter  to  get  either  out 
by  laying  a  pattern  on  the  shirt.  This 
really  is  a  saving  worth  practising,  and 
the  garment  can  be  planned  so  that  the 
buttons  and  buttonholes  may  close  the 
garment.  If  you  do  not  need  to  study 
thrift  for  yourself,  why  not  do  it  for  some 
one  else  who  would  be  glad  of  your 
help? 


276     THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

If  you  have  an  old  carpet  that  is  good 
except  in  pattern  you  can  bring  it  up  to 
date  by  painting  it.  Have  it  perfectly 
clean  and  then  use  a  paint  that  can  serve. 
Any  painter  can  tell  you  the  kind  that 
may  be  applied,  but  I  may  not  advertise 
it.  Some  paints  will  fail,  but  there  are 
several  that  will  turn  carpets  into  quite 
new  articles  in  appearance.  You  can 
turn  a  rug  into  oilcloth.  Tack  it  on  the 
floor  after  it  has  been  washed  clean. 
Cover  it  with  thick  cooked  paste  put  on 
with  a  brush.  Work  it  well  into  the  rug. 
When  this  is  dry  you  must  give  it  two 
coats  of  paint  and  one  of  varnish.  If  a 
border  is  wanted,  use  a  stencil  and  another 
color  of  paint.  For  coloring  a  carpet  the 
paste  is  not  necessary. 


CHAPTER  XVII 
THE  FAMILY  GARDEN 


CHAPTER  XVII 
THE  FAMILY  GAKDEN 

WE  know  experimentally  that  the  fam- 
ily garden  is  one  of  the  largest  sources  of 
saving  of  the  family  income.  We  started 
our  married  life  and  our  garden  about  the 
same  time,  with  equal  ignorance  on  both 
subjects.  The  garden  was  established  in 
our  back-yard,  a  plot  about  14x50  feet 
in  size,  of  very  poor  soil  where  never 
had  garden  been.  The  Man  dug  it  thor- 
oughly, thus  cultivating  muscles  never 
before  much  exercised  and  learning  what 
it  means  to  earn  his  food  by  the  sweat  of 
his  entire  body. 

The  soil  was  very  hard  to  spade,  but 
was  finally  dug  to  a  good  depth  and  left 
to  sun  and  ripen  until  planting  time.  As 

gardening  was  an   experiment,  and  our 
279 


280     THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

dollars  were  not  numerous  enough  to 
waste  we  decided  not  to  buy  fertilizer 
but  to  enrich  our  ground  with  our  waste 
from  the  table  and  such  wood  ashes  as  we 
had.  Much  of  the  garbage  was  burned 
on  the  inside  top  of  the  stove  which  is  a 
good  way  to  dispose  of  it  and  makes  no 
odor  if  drafts  are  open.  Garbage  prop- 
erly treated  in  a  compost  heap  becomes 
good  fertilizer  but  we  did  not  know  that 
then,  and  there  was  no  place  for  com- 
post. Not  buying  fertilizer  was  a  mis- 
taken economy,  but  nature  was  very  good 
to  us  for  all  that.  Some  plants  are  greedy 
eaters  and  thrive  better  for  every  mouth- 
ful of  food  given  them. 

One  of  the  encouraging  things  to  the 
amateur  gardener  is  the  will  of  nature  to 
have  things  live,  and  the  tenacity  of  life 
in  the  seeds  and  plants.  They  will  resist 
lack  of  proper  food  and  water,  but  they 
will  not  thrive  after  bugs  begin  to  live  on 
them,  and  the  only  plants  in  our  garden 


THE  FAMILY  GARDEN  281 

that  did  not  have  some  kind  of  a  bug 
haunting  them  were  okra  and  peppers. 

Our  seeds  were  given  us  by  a  sister 
whose  husband  is  a  champion  garden- 
maker,  and  there  was  the  expense  of 
thirty-nine  cents  for  a  small  hand 
sprayer,  which  was  another  mistaken  sav- 
ing. Spraying  is  so  large  a  part  of  garden 
making  that  it  pays  to  provide  one's  self 
with  as  large  a  sprayer  as  one  can  work. 
Bordeaux  mixture  cost  seventy-five  cents^ 
and  we  bought  tomato  plants  to  the  ex- 
tent of  thirty  cents,  a  total  cost  of  one 
dollar  and  forty-three  cents.  The  time 
cost  after  the  seeds  were  in  the  ground 
was  about  half  an  hour  daily.  The  aver- 
age would  be  higher  if  digging  and  plant- 
ing were  included.  Most  of  the  work 
was  done  early  in  the  morning,  and  oc- 
casionally some  little  in  the  evening. 

We  made  the  mistake  of  all  beginners 
and  planted  enough  in  that  small  space 
to  have  supplied  an  acre  of  ground,  and 


282     THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

the  seeds  were  so  thick  together  that  they 
had  no  chance  to  grow.  We  planted 
peas,  beans,  onions,  summer  and  winter 
squash,  carrots,  Swiss  chard,  spinach, 
radishes,  peppergrass,  corn,  cucumbers, 
tomatoes,  both  seeds  and  plants,  beets, 
turnips,  cabbage,  lettuce  and  okra,  these 
not  in  rotation  but  all  as  nearly  at  once 
as  we  could  get  them  into  the  ground. 

Peppergrass  was  the  first  return.  It  is 
like  watercress  and  we  used  it  for  salad 
and  sandwich  rilling.  There  was  a  sec- 
ond crop  of  that  and  we  combined  with 
lettuce.  We  gave  away  pecks  of  it,  and 
at  the  market  price  of  cress  it  had  a 
money  value  of  a  dollar  and  a  half.  The 
peas  did  not  thrive  and  we  had  only  a 
quart,  worth  eight  cents  ;  the  beans  be- 
came rusty  and  we  did  not  get  half  as 
many  as  we  should  have  had,  but  we 
sold  four  quarts  at  twelve  cents  each,  and 
canned  six  quarts.  We  had  ten  quarts  to 
eat  so  our  beans  brought  us  two  dollars 


THE  FAMILY  GARDEN  283 

and  forty  cents.  Of  shell-beans  there 
were  four  quarts,  price  twenty  cents  a 
quart.  Onions  made  sets  for  the  second 
year,  but  were  worthless  to  us  except  for 
the  flavoring  value  of  the  tops.  There 
were  two  quarts  of  little  carrots  from 
thinning  the  row,  and  they  were  deli- 
cious but  not  worth  more  than  six  cents. 
There  were  sixty  large  ones,  the  price  of 
which  at  that  time  would  have  been  fif- 
teen cents.  The  Swiss  chard  was  the 
most  profitable  article  raised.  It  fur- 
nishes a  very  delicate  greens  not  often 
found  in  the  market  because  it  wilts  very 
quickly.  We  had  twenty-six  pecks,  sold 
five  at  forty  cents  a  peck,  canned  a  dozen 
jars,  gave  away  three  pecks,  and  had  it 
often  on  the  table.  At  the  market  price 
of  spinach  it  brought  ten  dollars  and 
four  cents. 

Four  plantings  of  radishes  gave  us  361 
heads  or  thirty-six  bunches  at  five  cents 
each,  total,  one  dollar  and  eighty  cents ; 


284:     THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

there  were  thirty-five  cucumbers,  valued 
at  one  cent  each  ;  from  the  tomatoes  we 
got  a  peck  of  ripe  ones  and  four  pecks  of 
green  ones,  the  ripe  valued  at  thirty 
cents,  the  green  at  sixty ;  we  had  one 
hundred  heads  of  lettuce  from  three 
plantings,  and  that  summer  lettuce  never 
went  below  ten  cents.  Part  of  the  time 
the  price  went  to  sixteen  cents,  but  we 
did  not  sell  any  of  ours  and  reckoned  its 
value,  at  the  lowest  cost,  to  be  ten  dollars. 
There  were  five  summer  squashes,  worth 
ten  cents,  and  six  winter  squashes  worth 
fifty  cents. 

Three  kinds  of  bugs  worked  hard  all 
day  and  night  to  make  a  living  from  the 
squash  and  cucumbers  and  finally  des- 
troyed the  vines  in  spite  of  efforts  with 
the  sprayer.  The  amount  destroyed  was 
several  times  greater  than  the  crop  se- 
cured. From  the  beets  were  gathered 
twenty-one  quarts  of  tops  with  the  little 
beets,  and  five  quarts  were  canned.  The 


THE  FAMILY  GARDEN  285 

marketman  told  me  these  were  worth 
four  cents  a  quart,  total  eighty-four  cents. 
Of  the  roots  there  were  two  pecks,  worth 
twenty-five  cents  ;  out  of  all  the  corn,  only 
one  ear  grew  to  maturity,  but  it  was  per- 
fect. I  sold  twenty-five  cents'  worth  of 
young  turnip  greens,  and  three  turnips 
(two  cents)  were  eaten  at  home.  From 
the  green  tomatoes  six  quarts  of  pickles 
were  made.  The  okra  yielded  a  pint  of 
so  little  value  it  was  not  counted,  and 
the  peppers  had  no  selling  value,  as  they 
were  too  small,  but  they  served  as  season- 
ing. 

There  is  another  side  to  the  story.  Not 
one  seed  of  spinach  sprouted;  the  cabbage 
label  blew  off  and  when  the  young  plants 
appeared  I  thought  they  were  weeds  and 
pulled  up  all  but  three  before  the  Man 
told  me  what  they  were.  These  were 
finally  devoured  by  cabbage-worms.  The 
bugs  devoured  the  squashes  and  cucum- 
bers, but  enough  fruit  was  gathered  from 


286     THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

them  to  pay  for  having  planted  and 
tended  the  seed. 

Owing  to  business  necessities  we  were 
obliged  to  move  to  another  city  at  the 
end  of  August  and  as  our  garden  was 
late,  there  was  more  left  in  it  than  we 
had  gathered  from  it.  The  bed  of  chard 
was  still  in  full  bearing,  the  tomatoes  only 
beginning  to  ripen,  and  those  from  seed 
planted  by  us  were  heavy  with  green 
fruit ;  in  the  ground  ungathered  were 
beets,  carrots,  turnips,  beside  chard,  toma- 
toes, lettuce,  and  peppergrass.  In  giving 
prices  I  have  given  those  common  in 
Baltimore  markets  that  summer,  and  they 
are  much  less  than  present  prices. 

It  is  wonderful  how  generous  Nature 
is  to  those  who  give  her  a  chance,  and  if 
she  gives  thus  liberally  to  two  ignorant 
beginners,  what  will  she  not  give  to  those 
who  plant  properly,  and  feed  fertilizers 
with  full  hand  ?  We  might  have  had 
twice  as  much  for  our  work  had  we  not 


THE  FAMILY  GARDEN  287 

economized  at  the  source  of  profit.  You 
must  remember  that  every  cent  paid  out 
that  does  not  bring  a  return  is  loss.  It  was 
waste  to  plant  twice  as  much  as  there  was 
space  for,  because  the  plants  that  grew 
did  not  accomplish  nearly  as  much  as  was 
natural  to  them.  If  one  pays  a  man  by 
the  hour  or  day,  from  the  garden  must 
much  more  profit  be  gained. 

We  made  a  great  profit  because  we  had 
practically  no  expense  and  all  that  came 
to  us  after  one  dollar  and  forty-four  cents 
was  gain.  We  sold  to  persons  near  by 
who  came  for  the  vegetables  that  could 
be  bought  fresh  from  the  ground.  Had 
we  tried  to  sell,  we  might  have  sold  much 
more.  Some  things  we  would  not  sell 
at  all  because  we  wanted  all  there  was. 
We  felt  that  with  $30.14  to  our  credit  our 
investment  paid,  and  we  are  enthusiastic 
advocates  of  the  pleasure  and  profit  in 
one's  own  garden.  Beside  the  practical 
side  of  abundance  of  fresh  vegetables, 


288     THRIFT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

there  is  the  delight  of  seeing  things  push 
up  their  little  green  heads,  put  out  new 
leaves,  —  yes,  it  surely  pays  to  have  a 
garden.  It  was  not  by  accident  that 
Eden  was  a  garden. 


THE    END 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
STAMPED  BELOW 


AN  INITIAL  FINE  OF  25  CENTS 

WILL  BE  ASSESSED  FOR  FAILURE  TO  RETURN 
THIS  BOOK  ON  THE  DATE  DUE.  THE  PENALTY 
WILL  INCREASE  TO  SO  CENTS  ON  THE  FOURTH 
DAY  AND  TO  $1.OO  ON  THE  SEVENTH  DAY 
OVERDUE. 


DEC    9 


1942 


9  M58M1 


n 


tie 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


